Anil’s Ghost

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A breath-taking novel about love and the horrors of civil war from the bestselling author of The English Patient.

Anil's Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of a bloody civil war. Enter Anil Tissera, a young woman and forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka but educated in the West, sent by an international human rights group to identify the victims of the murder campaigns sweeping the island.

When Anil discovers that the bones found in an ancient burial site are in fact those of a much more recent victim, her search for the terrible truth hidden in her homeland begins. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity - a story driven by a riveting mystery.

'There is much to astonish, to disturb and to admire in this book... A rare triumph' Guardian

©2011 Michael Ondaatje (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • There is much to astonish, to disturb and to admire in this dense book… a rare triumph

    Guardian

  • This is why I read, this is why literature matters, this, in short, is IT!… By the closing pages Anil’s Ghost has come as close to a holy book as a novel ever should

    Independent

  • A deeply felt and highly accomplished survey of devastated paradise… which both plunges you into the carnage of Sri Lanka’s civil war and keeps you aware of the island’s past splendours of civilisation. Barbarity and art hauntingly mingle in this fine book

    Sunday Times

  • It is Ondaatje’s extraordinary achievement to use magic in order to make the blood of his own country real… Nowhere has he written more beautifully

    New York Times Book Review

  • A truly wondrous book… I was as enthralled as I have not been since The English Patient

    Ariel Dorfman, author of Death and the Maiden

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