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Canadian Authors - General fiction - |
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Anil's Ghost |
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 Anil's Ghost byMichael Ondaatje McClelland and Stewart 311 pages, 2000 ISBN 077106893X Reviewed by Devorah Stone Read another review by Zaheera Jiwaji Anil returns to her homeland after years studying and working in England and the US. She was a swimmer from a prominent family and now she is a forensic anthropologist with no living family in Sri Lanka. She comes back to a small island nation ravaged by the insanity of a civil war. There she meets a native Archeologist Sarath. Together they unlock the mystery of one murdered man known to them only as `Sailor'. They piece together his identity, life and death. A retired scholar monk, an alcoholic eye- painter and Sarath's brother Gamini a doctor, helps them. Anil and Sarath travel around the island searching for the truth. Through flashbacks we also meet Anil's American friend Leaf and discover Anil's passion for bowling and the Southwest. After reading the book I felt I knew Anil as well as I did my own sister. I knew all about her likes and dislikes. I felt all her childhood secrets, dreams and her life. The author creates reader - character intimacy through vignettes and flashbacks to her life in the West and her childhood. His sparse poetic prose describes death and carnage with both scientific detachment and humanity. This is a murder mystery in a sense that there is murder all around and the mystery is why is it happening. How can people allow it to happen. Michael Ondaatje didn't answer any of my questions about how an Island paradise with ancient proud traditions could turn in on itself. He did open my mind to a myriad of possibilities. This is a powerful and brilliant book. |
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