The English Patient

The English Patient (1992) is a historical romance novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The novel explores the relationships between four dissimilar people living in an abandoned Italian monastery at the end of World War II. The eponymous English patient—actually a Hungarian count burned beyond recognition—tells Canadian nurse Hana the story of his forbidden romance with British amateur cartographer Katharine Clifton as their small team attempted, several years earlier, to map North African deserts. Using a nonlinear chronology, it explores themes such as National Identity and Personal Identity; Desire, Sensuality, and Orientalism; and Storytelling as a Form of Healing against the backdrop of violent conflict. The novel was awarded the Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Award, and in 1996, its film adaptation won nine Academy Awards.

This guide uses the First Vintage International Edition (Random House, 1993).

Content Warning: This guide refers to scenes that depict or discuss drug use/addiction, fire injury, war violence, suicide, abortion, and pedophilia.

Plot Summary

A young Canadian nurse named Hana gardens in an Italian villa. The year is 1945 and World War II has just ended in Europe. Hana spent the war stationed at the villa, a former monastery, with a handful of doctors, nurses, and patients.