The English Patient
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian campaign of World War II: an unrecognizably burned man—the eponymous patient who is presumed to be English—; his Canadian Army nurse; a Sikh sapper; and a Canadian self-described thief. The story is primarily set during the North African campaign and centers on the incremental revelations of the patient's actions prior to his injuries, and the emotional effects of these revelations on the other characters. The story is told through the characters' perspectives and "authors" of books the characters are reading.
The book is a sequel to the 1987 novel In the Skin of a Lion, which continues the story of characters of his stories of Hana and Caravaggio; as well as revealing the fate of the latter's main character, Patrick Lewis. It won the 1992 Booker Prize, the 1992 Governor General's Award and the 2018 Golden Man Booker.
The English Patient was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name. It was in early development in August 2021 for a new BBC television series, co-produced by Miramax Television and Paramount Television Studios.
In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Plot synopsis
The novel's historical backdrop is the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II. The story is told out of sequence, moving back and forth between the severely burned "English" patient's memories from before his accident and current events at the bomb-damaged Church of San Girolamo in Fiesole, where he is being cared for by Hana, a troubled young Canadian Army nurse. A few chapters are also devoted to Kip, a Sikh soldier, during his time in England training and working as a sapper on unexploded ordnance.The patient's only possession is a well-worn and heavily annotated copy of Herodotus's The Histories that has survived the fiery parachute drop. Hearing the book constantly being read aloud to him brings about detailed recollections of his desert explorations, yet he is unable to recall his own name. Instead, he chooses to believe the assumption by others that he is an Englishman based on his accent. Caravaggio, the fourth person in the villa, suspects the patient is in fact Ladislaus de Almásy, a Hungarian count and desert explorer who was part of a British cartography group.
Caravaggio, an Italian-Canadian working for British intelligence, is a friend of Hana’s father, Patrick and her stepmother, Clara. He had remained in North Africa to spy when the German forces gain control and then transfers to Italy. He is eventually caught, interrogated, and tortured, resulting in his thumbs being cut off. He is prematurely released and is standing on the Ponte Santa Trinita bridge when it is destroyed. He recovers at a hospital for over four months before he accidentally overhears about the patient and Hana. Caravaggio bears physical and psychological scars from his painful war experience.
During a thunderstorm, Kip and another soldier arrive at the villa while Hana is playing on the piano. Kip decides to stay at the villa to attempt to clear it of unexploded ordnance. Kip and the English patient become friends due to the latter's extensive knowledge on both Allied and Axis weaponry and a detailed topography of Tuscany. At one point, Hana risks her life while Kip is defusing a bomb telling him later that at the time she had hoped both of them would die. Shortly after, Kip and Hana develop feelings for one another and begin a relationship.
The English patient, sedated by morphine, begins to reveal everything: he fell in love with the Englishwoman Katharine Clifton who, with her husband Geoffrey, accompanied Almásy's desert exploration team. Almásy was mesmerised by Katharine's voice as she read Herodotus' tale of Candaules aloud by the campfire. They soon began a very intense affair, but she cut it short, claiming that Geoffrey would go mad if he were to discover them.
As the war begins and the archaeological expedition is forced to abandon the desert camp, Katharine Clifton’s husband, Geoffrey, discovers her affair with Almásy. In a jealous and reckless act, Geoffrey flies a plane with Katharine aboard and deliberately crashes it into Almásy’s camp. Geoffrey is killed instantly, while Almásy survives and Katharine is seriously injured.
Almásy carries Katharine to the Cave of Swimmers for shelter and promises to return with help. He undertakes a long and arduous journey to the British-controlled town of El Tag. When questioned by British authorities, Almásy gives his own name and claims that the injured woman is his wife, rather than identifying her as Katharine Clifton, whose name was well known to the British through her husband’s work. As a result, his story is not taken seriously, and no immediate rescue is mounted.
In the years that follow, Almásy cooperates with German forces in North Africa, culminating in Operation Salam, during which he guides the German agent Johannes Eppler into Cairo. After completing this mission, Almásy is given the means to return to the desert. He retrieves a colleague's plane buried in the sand, and flies back to the Cave of Swimmers, where Katharine has by then been dead for several years.
Almásy recovers Katharine’s body and attempts to fly her out of the desert. During the flight, the plane suffers a mechanical failure and catches fire. Almásy breaks through the cockpit glass and parachutes to the ground while burning. He is found and rescued by Bedouin tribesmen, suffering the severe burns that later leave him unrecognizable.
Towards the end of the novel, Kip learns through his headset that the US has bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a situation develops where he nearly shoots Almásy. Hana calms him down and Caravaggio reflects that they would not have dropped that kind of bomb on a white nation. Kip departs from the villa, estranged from his white companions, and returns to India. He marries and has two children though he still thinks of Hana.
Characters
Almásy
Count Ladislaus de Almásy is the titular character who comes under Hana's care in Italy after being burned unrecognisably in Africa. Although Hungarian by birth, because he has lived without government identification or many verifiable long-term interactions, his accent prompts the authorities around him to perceive an English affiliation and to refer to him as the English patient. Almásy serves as a blank canvas onto which the other characters project their experience during this time in Italy. For example, Hana treats him tenderly to redeem herself for not being by the side of her father when he was engulfed in flames and died. She provides comfort to the English Patient that she could not provide to her own father.His lack of a national identity enables Almásy to rationalise his duplicitous actions with his associates. He socialises with, and is a mapmaker for, the British before the war, then uses that information to smuggle German spies across northern Africa. Almásy is portrayed in a sympathetic light, partly because he tells his own story, but also because he always adheres to his own moral code.
Almásy is also at the centre of one of the novel's love stories. He is involved in an adulterous relationship with Katharine Clifton, which eventually leads to her death and the death of her husband, Geoffrey Clifton. Katharine is the figure who leads Almásy to sensuality. He falls in love with her voice as she reads Herodotus. Sensuality, both sexual and observational, is a major theme in the novel.
The character is loosely based on László Almásy, a well-known desert explorer in 1930s Egypt, who helped the German side in the Second World War. Almásy did not suffer burns or die in Italy, but survived the war and lived until 1951.
Hana
Hana is a twenty-year-old Canadian Army nurse torn between her youth and her maturity. Being a good nurse, she quickly learns that she cannot become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy," and forgets them immediately once they die. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed and because of this, Hana comes to believe that she is cursed and that all those around her are doomed to die.In contrast, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. She then puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds, reads to him and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave, staying with her patient. She sees Almásy as saint-like and falls in love with his pure nature.
In addition to her relationship with Almásy, Hana also forms a strong relationship with Kip during his stay at the villa.
Hana seems to not be able to acknowledge or even come to terms with her father's death. As she almost sees no reason in returning home and her excuse to stay in the now abandoned hospital is to take proper care of the English patient, due to Almasy not being able to move because of how severe his burns are externally and internally as well. On top of this Hana fails to reply or write back her step-mother, whom she loves and is the only living family she has left. Clara writes to Hana for a year whilst she is in Italy; Hana keeps every letter, but fails to write back even with such woe and guilt filling her heart.
Hana seems to be putting off her life as a young adult and at times shows her immaturity throughout the novel in ignoring Caravaggio's advice or suggestions or simply not facing the reality that awaits her back home. She seems as if escaping reality and being completely isolated from the rest of society is better than growing up. Hana escapes reality simply by stalling in taking care of the patient, rearranging her set up inside the deteriorating villa, listening to what Almásy has to say or the stories he tells, and by reading books to him over and over again.
Hana claims to have changed and grown up mentally throughout being a nurse during the war, as one would expect, but her "growing up" seems to be much more of building up a wall and being stuck in this continuous process of trying to heal an already dead body.