Anil's Ghost
Ratings13
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings13
Average rating3.6
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I've always been interested in Sri Lanka and troubled by the unrest there. It is only in recent years that I've realized that the government was guilty of its own abuses. So I enjoyed this book to learn more about the issue. But–and this may be a function of having listened to the book on tape instead of reading it–it seemed too disjointed and the ending far too open. Only the dead characters achieved resolution.
This book was very slow moving. It told a very sad story that is based on true conditions in Sri Lanka. I think this story could have been better but the many smaller stories intertwined were hard to follow. I also don't like not really knowing or understanding the outcome. It seemed like they finally got the evidence they needed there was no real wrap-up. I wanted to like this book more but it was difficult to digest and the ending was lacking for me.
