The English Patient
Overview
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...

. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper
Sapper
A sapper, pioneer or combat engineer is a combatant soldier who performs a wide variety of combat engineering duties, typically including, but not limited to, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences, general construction and building, as well as road and airfield...

 in the British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian villa. The novel won the Canadian Governor General's Award
1992 Governor General's Awards
Each winner of the 1992 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit received $10,000 and a medal from the Governor General of Canada. The winners were selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.-Fiction:Winner:...

 and the Booker Prize for fiction.
Quotations

I think I was a pilot.

A very… plum… plum.

Its probably none of my business— your wife… do you think it is appropriate to leave her?

I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, Faya! That was a good day. [to Katharine]

There's really no need. This is just a scrapbook. They are too good. I should feel obliged. Thank you. [to Katharine]

We planned badly. [to Katharine]

In a few minutes there'll be no stars— the air is filling with sand. [to Katharine]

I apologize if I appear abrupt. I am rusty at social graces. [to Katharine]

Let me tell you about winds. [to Katharine]

Could I ask you, please, to paste you paintings into my book? I should like to have them. I should be honored. [to Katharine]

 
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