Warlight (Vintage International)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the internationally acclaimed, Booker Prize-winning author of The English Patient: “an elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale” (The Washington Post) set in the decade after World War II that tells the dramatic story of two teenagers and an eccentric group of characters.
In a narrative as beguiling and mysterious as memory itself—shadowed and luminous at once—we read the story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel, and his older sister, Rachel. In 1945, just after World War II, they stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women joined by a shared history of unspecified service during the war, all of whom seem, in some way, determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings' mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn't know and understand in that time, and it is this journey—through facts, recollection, and imagination—that he narrates in this masterwork from one of the great writers of our time.
In a narrative as beguiling and mysterious as memory itself—shadowed and luminous at once—we read the story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel, and his older sister, Rachel. In 1945, just after World War II, they stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women joined by a shared history of unspecified service during the war, all of whom seem, in some way, determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings' mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn't know and understand in that time, and it is this journey—through facts, recollection, and imagination—that he narrates in this masterwork from one of the great writers of our time.
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
285 pages
What’s it about?
“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” This is the lyrical, mysterious story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel and how the period of time after the war shaped him into the person he becomes.
What did it make me think about?
The epigraph at the beginning of this book says, “Most of the great battles are fought in the creases of topographical maps.” Hmmm.... This book is mysterious from the epigraph on. What exactly is this book about? As the story unwinds we come to feel that this book is about many things. Wars are won on the battlefields, but they are also won by the work of many average, ordinary citizens stepping up in extraordinary ways. What happens when the war ends? How does life resume?
Should I read it?
This is a beautiful book. Part mystery and all literature. It unwinds slowly and the style of the writing is center stage. For any fan of Michale Ondaatje’s earlier work- don’t miss this one. However, if you prefer a quick page turner….then you will probably not be putting this one on your nightstand. You will be missing out though!
Quote-
“We are foolish as teenagers. We say wrong things. Do not know how to be modest, or less shy. We judge easily. But the only hope given us, although only in retrospect, is that we change. We learn, we evolve. What I am now was formed by whatever happened to me then, not by what I have achieved, but by how I got here.”
If you like this try-
A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
Driftless by David Rhodes
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
285 pages
What’s it about?
“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” This is the lyrical, mysterious story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel and how the period of time after the war shaped him into the person he becomes.
What did it make me think about?
The epigraph at the beginning of this book says, “Most of the great battles are fought in the creases of topographical maps.” Hmmm.... This book is mysterious from the epigraph on. What exactly is this book about? As the story unwinds we come to feel that this book is about many things. Wars are won on the battlefields, but they are also won by the work of many average, ordinary citizens stepping up in extraordinary ways. What happens when the war ends? How does life resume?
Should I read it?
This is a beautiful book. Part mystery and all literature. It unwinds slowly and the style of the writing is center stage. For any fan of Michale Ondaatje’s earlier work- don’t miss this one. However, if you prefer a quick page turner….then you will probably not be putting this one on your nightstand. You will be missing out though!
Quote-
“We are foolish as teenagers. We say wrong things. Do not know how to be modest, or less shy. We judge easily. But the only hope given us, although only in retrospect, is that we change. We learn, we evolve. What I am now was formed by whatever happened to me then, not by what I have achieved, but by how I got here.”
If you like this try-
A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
Driftless by David Rhodes
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.