(2000) is Michael Ondaatje’s fourth novel and it is the one that follows the global success of
The English Patient. Like the latter, the story is set during a conflict: however, this time the drama is staged in Sri Lanka, the author’s country of birth, during the civil war of the 1980s and 1990s. After structuring his fictional masterpiece on a story having at its centre a nameless protagonist, with
Anil’s Ghostthe novelist returns to this principal interest, i.e. the question of identity, both as a subject of psychological investigation but also, crucially, an ideological issue.
Sri Lanka, then, is not simply a background against which the plot unravels -- it plays a crucial part in it, particularly in relation to its own long history. Anil’s Ghost tells a copious
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Citation: Piciucco, Pier Paolo. "Anil's Ghost". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 October 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6598, accessed 25 November 2024.]
