The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

This is a picasso of music and prose. A beautiful novel set amongst the ravages of WWII in Italy. There are four major characters; the burned english patient; the young nurse, Hana; the government hired thief, David; and the indian sapper, Kip. All of them so beautifully different. I loved it, swerving in and out of their lives, seeing what hurt them here or there, where they came from, how they all came to be so closely loved by eachother, how they had to leave eachother. It is a novel you have to be on your toes about. With the beginning of each chapter you are placed in someone else's life, in some other time. It is a mosaic of four lives. Not an easy read, but an elegant one. Four stars.

JLW