The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje
***Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize***
The English Patient is a beautiful novel by Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet Michael Ondaatje. Set in Tuscany in Italy towards the end of World War II, it goes back in time to the beginning of the war and the campaign in North Africa. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, read the novel first.
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“The novel was written by Michael Onaatje. It was published in 1992 and won the Booker Prize. We made the film in 1995 and it was released in 1996. Anthony Minghella wrote and directed it and it won nine Academy Awards. I should give the disclaimer that I directed second unit on the film. The ‘English’ patient is László von Almásy, a Hungarian count and desert explorer, who gets caught up in the North African campaign of World War Two. He is also in a romance with a married English woman, which leads to a tragedy and his near death. Rescued from the crash of his plane, he is brought to Italy and through force of circumstances is left in the care of a young French-Canadian nurse, Hana, in a ruined monastery in Tuscany. Something that really fascinates me in rereading the novel, rewatching the film, and reading Michael Ondaatje’s comments on his novel, is the significance of the desert.” Read more...
The Best Book-to-Movie Adaptations
Peter Markham, Film Director
