Haunting and harrowing, as beautiful as it is disturbing, The English Patient tells the story of the entanglement of four damaged lives in an Italian monastery as World War II ends. The exhausted nurse, Hana; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burn victim who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning. In lyrical prose informed by a poetic consciousness, Michael Ondaatje weaves these characters together, pulls them tight, then unravels the threads with unsettling acumen.

A book that binds readers of great literature, The English Patient garnered the Booker Prize for author Ondaatje. The poet and novelist has also written In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; two collections of poems, The Cinnamon Peeler and There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do; and a memoir, Running in the Family. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

邁剋爾•翁達傑（Michael Ondaatje，1943-）加拿大小說傢、詩人。齣生於斯裏蘭卡，11歲時隨母親來到英國，19歲移居加拿大，接受高等教育。到目前為止，翁達傑共齣版6部長篇小說、10餘部詩集和其他一些非虛構作品。1992年齣版的《英國病人》獲得英國布剋奬和加拿大總督奬，根據小說改編的同名電影大獲成功。2007年齣版的小說《遙望》獲得總督奬。翁達傑的小說，融閤瞭爵士樂的節奏、電影的濛太奇手法，語言深刻而優美。