Ondaatje, Michael Anil's Ghost: A Novel ISBN 13: 9780375724374

Anil's Ghost: A Novel - Softcover

9780375724374: Anil's Ghost: A Novel
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
With his first novel since the internationally acclaimed The English Patient, Booker Prize—winning author Michael Ondaatje gives us a work displaying all the richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that we have come to know as the hallmarks of his writing.

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 civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past–a story propelled by a riveting mystery. Unfolding against the deeply evocative background of Sri Lanka’s landscape and ancient civilization, Anil’s Ghost is a literary spellbinder–Michael Ondaatje’s most powerful novel yet.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
In his Booker Prize-winning third novel, The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje explored the nature of love and betrayal in wartime. His fourth, Anil's Ghost, is also set during a war, but unlike in World War II, the enemy is difficult to identify in the bloody sectarian upheaval that ripped Sri Lanka apart in the 1980s and '90s. The protagonist, Anil Tissera, a native Sri Lankan, left her homeland at 18 and returns to it 15 years later only as part of an international human rights fact-finding mission. In the intervening years she has become a forensic anthropologist--a career that has landed her in the killing fields of Central America, digging up the victims of Guatemala's dirty war. Now she's come to Sri Lanka on a similar quest. But as she soon learns, there are fundamental differences between her previous assignment and this one:
The bodies turn up weekly now. The height of the terror was 'eighty-eight and 'eighty-nine, but of course it was going on long before that. Every side was killing and hiding the evidence. Every side. This is an unofficial war, no one wants to alienate the foreign powers. So it's secret gangs and squads. Not like Central America. The government was not the only one doing the killing.
In such a situation, it's difficult to know who to trust. Anil's colleague is one Sarath Diyasena, a Sri Lankan archaeologist whose political affiliations, if any, are murky. Together they uncover evidence of a government-sponsored murder in the shape of a skeleton they nickname Sailor. But as Anil begins her investigation into the events surrounding Sailor's death, she finds herself caught in a web of politics, paranoia, and tragedy.

Like its predecessor, the novel explores that territory where the personal and the political intersect in the fulcrum of war. Its style, though, is more straightforward, less densely poetical. While many of Ondaatje's literary trademarks are present--frequent shifts in time, almost hallucinatory imagery, the gradual interweaving of characters' pasts with the present--the prose here is more accessible. This is not to say that the author has forgotten his poetic roots; subtle, evocative images abound. Consider, for example, this description of Anil at the end of the day, standing in a pool of water, "her toes among the white petals, her arms folded as she undressed the day, removing layers of events and incidents so they would no longer be within her." In Anil's Ghost Michael Ondaatje has crafted both a brutal examination of internecine warfare and an enduring meditation on identity, loyalty, and the unbreakable hold the past exerts over the present. --Alix Wilber

From the Publisher:
6 1.5-hour cassettes

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherVintage
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0375724370
  • ISBN 13 9780375724374
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages307
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780099554455: Anil's Ghost

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780099554455
Publisher: Vintage Books, 2011
Softcover

  • 9780375410536: Anil's Ghost

    Knopf, 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9780747548652: Anil's Ghost

    Trafal..., 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9781408819784: Anil's Ghost

    Blooms..., 2011
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ebooksweb
(Bensalem, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ00AR8A_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.92
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
BookShop4U
(PHILADELPHIA, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 5AUZZZ000VIJ_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.92
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780375724374

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.81
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Softcover Quantity: 3
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 467101-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.22
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

ONDAATJE, MICHAEL
Published by Penguin Random House (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0375724370

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Michael Ondaatje
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. With his first novel since the internationally acclaimed The English Patient, Booker Prizewinning author Michael Ondaatje gives us a work displaying all the richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that we have come to know as the hallmarks of his writing.Anils Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden pasta story propelled by a riveting mystery. Unfolding against the deeply evocative background of Sri Lankas landscape and ancient civilization, Anils Ghost is a literary spellbinderMichael Ondaatjes most powerful novel yet. With his first novel since the internationally acclaimed The English Patient, Booker Prize—winning author Michael Ondaatje gives us a work displaying all the richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that we have come to know as the hallmarks of his writing. 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 civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past-a story propelled by a riveting mystery. Unfolding against the deeply evocative background of Sri Lanka's landscape and ancient civilization, Anil's Ghost is a literary spellbinder-Michael Ondaatje's most powerful novel yet. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780375724374

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.70
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GridFreed
(North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 10-04095

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.45
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GridFreed
(North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. In shrink wrap. Seller Inventory # 90-11130

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 13.95
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.45
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Michael Ondaatje
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New PAP Quantity: 2
Seller:
PBShop.store US
(Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # WB-9780375724374

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.90
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Ondaatje, Michael
Published by Vintage (2001)
ISBN 10: 0375724370 ISBN 13: 9780375724374
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0375724370

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 22.87
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book