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65-529: 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 book was adapted into a 1996 film with the same title. It was in early development in August 2021 for

130-501: A Macedonian neighborhood. He is accepted into the neighborhood and is invited by Kosta, a fellow dynamiter, to a gathering at the Waterworks—a place where various nationalities gather for secret political discussions and entertainment. Patrick witnesses a performance in which an actor repeatedly smashes her hand against the stage and rushes forward to help her. He recognizes her as Alice Gull. His act of helping her turns out to be part of

195-605: A Senussi holy place. During the colonial Italian Libya period, the Italians built a World War I –style fort in El Tag in the mid-1930s. Although some guns were stationed at the fort, its battlements were out of date and of little use in the mobile warfare tactics of World War II . The fort, airfield, and town of Kufra were taken by Free French forces and the British-New Zealand Long Range Desert Group in

260-458: A community when he is welcomed into the Suffolk household and regards Lord Suffolk as a father figure. Lord Suffolk and his sapper team are killed while attempting to dismantle a new type of bomb. Their deaths cause Kip's emotional withdrawal to become more pronounced. Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk , was a real person who did dismantle bombs and was killed while attempting to dismantle one. Kip

325-432: A house owned by a timber company, and Small attempts to set him on fire—once by dropping kerosene on him and then by throwing a Molotov cocktail . Patrick escapes to his hotel room and is visited by Clara, who dresses his wounds and makes love to him before returning to Small. In 1930, Patrick is working as a dynamiter on a tunnel under Lake Ontario , a project of Commissioner Rowland Harris. Patrick rents an apartment in

390-569: A minor section of the novel, Patrick Lewis visits Paris, Ontario in which Ondaatje describes various parts of the town including: Broadway Street, Wheelers Needleworks, Medusa, Paris Plains, just north of the town, the Arlington hotel, and Paris Public Library . The novel's title is taken from a line in The Epic of Gilgamesh , following the death of Enkidu. It is located in the epigraph as "I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through

455-614: 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 . The novel's historical backdrop is the North African and Italian Campaigns of the Second World War . The story is told out of sequence, moving back and forth between

520-403: A painting, so he had hidden in a mushroom factory where a young woman named Giannetta helped him recover, with whom he had escaped by dressing as a woman. Caravaggio enters the cottage of a woman whom he met on the lake and calls his wife to let her know he's all right. After talking to the cottage owner, he returns to his brother-in-law's house, reuniting with Giannetta. Four years later, Patrick

585-530: A relationship with her. Eventually, Patrick loses interest in finding Small, hoping only to remove Clara from Small. Clara tells Patrick that she will leave him to go after Small and warns him not to follow her. Patrick is broken-hearted . Three years later, Clara's friend Alice unexpectedly arrives and tells Patrick that Clara's mother might know where Clara is. Patrick sets out to search for Clara. On meeting Clara's mother, Patrick learns that Clara and Small are living in his old hometown. Patrick finds Small living in

650-597: 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. Geoffrey offers to return Almásy to Cairo on his plane since

715-496: A romantic love towards Hana, but also at one point wishes she would marry Kip. Caravaggio and Almásy share a morphine addiction. Caravaggio works this to his advantage to confirm his suspicion that Almásy is not English. Katharine is the childhood friend and newly-wed wife of Geoffrey Clifton, whom she marries after their days at Oxford University. The day after their wedding, she and Geoffrey fly to join Almásy's expedition. She entertains

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780-503: A steamer to a Muskoka hotel frequented by the rich. He burns down the hotel, then escapes on a small boat, traveling to the next island, where he meets the blind Elizabeth. We learn that Alice has died suddenly and that Patrick committed the arson out of anger. Patrick swims out to a boat, knowing he will be caught by the authorities. In the Kingston Penitentiary , Patrick and two other prisoners, Buck and Caravaggio, are painting

845-498: A thief in total darkness, Patrick's removal of the lamp when breaking into the water plant, the lights being turned off during the final dialogue between Patrick and Harris. The color blue is also mentioned often, especially during Caravaggio's escape from prison to help him camouflage himself against the blue prison roof. The idea of demarcation is emphasized by Caravaggio to Patrick. El Tag El Tag ( Arabic : التاج , romanized :  at-Tāj ; also Al-Tag , Al-Taj )

910-481: A village, city or country. The emotional heart of this novel is found at the core of the character's want and need to survive, which in turn is the eternal damnation they find by everything seeming so bleak. Within this, the desert is a large symbol. As the Villa San Girolamo is an abandoned, war ridden place, it is also a place that seems like a cage, with no chance at happiness in sight. The war may be over, but

975-432: 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 defaulting villa, listening to what

1040-488: 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

1105-670: Is a serene sense of acceptance in the villa and that the people need him. Hana is devoted to her patients, to the very last. Thus, she stays behind in the villa hospital when numerous others abandon it. Almásy himself is forced into the villa, essentially because the desert took him when his plane was shot down. A psychoanalytic analysis of "The English Patient" helps us to understand the meaning of Michael Ondaatje's emphasis on his characters' differences and appearances. He may have been thinking about how melting pot civilisations begin by different cultures working together in spite of each other's background. Note how each central character living in

1170-716: Is a village and holy site in the Kufra Oasis, within the Libyan Desert subregion of the Sahara . It is in the Kufra District in the southern Cyrenaica region of southeastern Libya . The Arabic el tag translates as "crown" in English, and derives from the site's position above the Kufra basin. El Tag, being on a rise, is without an oasis spring and native date palm habitat . El-Tag

1235-403: 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 the sound of his voice. The patient

1300-515: Is categorized thematically as post-colonial , as it is largely concerned with the native cultures and languages of immigrants in Canada. Additionally, the structure of the novel may be described as postmodern in that Ondaatje uses the integration of different voices, images, and re-organization of time to tell these stories. Watson and McLeod note the use of a "searcher-figure" in Patrick, and by extension

1365-461: Is detained as a spy because of his name, despite telling them about Katharine's predicament. He later guides German spies across the desert to Cairo. Almásy returns to the cave where he finds Katherine has died years earlier. He retrieves her body from the Cave and, while flying back, the decrepit plane leaks oil onto him and both of them catch fire. He parachutes from the plane and is found severely burned by

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1430-579: Is in fact László de Almásy , a Hungarian Count and desert explorer, one of many members of a British cartography group. Caravaggio, an Italian-Canadian in the British foreign intelligence service since the late 1930s, is a friend of Hana and Patrick, her mother's lover. 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

1495-501: Is killed in the crash, Katharine admits that she always loved Almásy. Geoffrey is Katharine's husband, on a secret mission for the British government to make detailed aerial maps of North Africa; his joining the Almásy expedition is only a ruse. The plane he claims to be his own was appropriated by the Crown, and he leaves his wife with the other expedition members while on his mission, leading to her infidelity. Christopher McVey has discussed

1560-549: Is nowhere else to turn for hope. The novel won the 1992 Booker Prize , the 1992 Governor General's Award and the 2018 Golden Man Booker award. The novel was adapted into the 1996 film with the same title by Anthony Minghella , starring Ralph Fiennes , Kristin Scott Thomas , Willem Dafoe , Colin Firth , Naveen Andrews and Juliette Binoche . The film received nine Academy Awards —including Best Picture and Director —at

1625-485: 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 British soldier arrive at the villa while Hana is playing on the piano. Kip decides to stay at

1690-468: Is released from prison and meets Temelcoff at the Geranium Bakery. Hana, now sixteen, has been living with Temelcoff's family. Patrick takes responsibility for Hana. One night, she wakes him to say that Clara Dickens has called. She tells him that Small is dead and asks him to pick her up from Marmora . Realizing that the water supply is vulnerable to being cut off or poisoned, Harris installs guards at

1755-461: Is taken from a line in The Epic of Gilgamesh , following the death of Enkidu. It is located in the epigraph as "I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion," echoing the theme of converging voices re-telling history. Diogenes is quoted at the climax of the third act, "[i]n a rich man's house there is nowhere to spit except in his face." Earlier in

1820-556: 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

1885-460: Is transferred to another unit in Italy where he and his partner hear a piano playing. As they enter the villa, they come across Hana while she is playing on a piano during a thunderstorm. Kip stays on at the villa to clear any remaining unexploded bombs, mines, or other booby-traps. Kip feels a sense of community and confidence when he becomes Hana's lover. Kip sees the interactions of the Westerners at

1950-516: The 69th Academy Awards . A television adaptation of the book is planned by the BBC . The project will be written by Emily Ballou and co-producing between Miramax Television and Paramount Television Studios . However, in March 2023, it was reported that it was no longer moving forward. In the Skin of a Lion In the Skin of a Lion is a novel by Canadian – Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje . It

2015-564: The Prince Edward Viaduct , commonly known as the Bloor Street Viaduct, and the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant , and focuses on the lives of the immigrant workers. The plot incorporates a number of true stories of the time, such as the fall of a nun from a bridge, the disappearance of Ambrose Small , the political suppression of Police Chief Draper , and the murder of labour union organizers Rosvall and Voutilainen . In

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2080-421: The 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. Kirpal (Kip) Singh is an Indian Sikh who has volunteered with

2145-580: The Bedouin. 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 the English patient. 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. Count Ladislaus de Almásy

2210-420: The British military for sapper bomb disposal training under Lord Suffolk. This act of patriotism is not shared by his Indian nationalist brother; the scepticism of his unit's white peers discourages a sense of community for Kip. Lord Suffolk, an eccentric English nobleman, has developed techniques to dismantle complicated, unexploded bombs in what is a very dangerous occupation. Kip feels a sense of belonging in

2275-526: 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

2340-481: The Skin of a Lion is thus an exposé of the migrant condition: "It is a novel about the wearing and the removal of masks; the shedding of skin, the transformations and translations of identity." An important aspect of the novel is its depiction of Toronto in the 1930s. Ondaatje spent many months in the archives of the City of Toronto and newspapers of the era. Prominence is given to the construction of two Toronto landmarks,

2405-575: The Waterworks, which he built. Caravaggio introduces Patrick to his wife. They fraternize at a party for the rich, then steal a multimillion-dollar yacht from a couple they chloroform . Patrick intends to blow up the Filtration Plant with dynamite and Caravaggio's help. Patrick enters the plant through the water intake. He places dynamite about the plant testing facility and carries the detonating box to Harris' office, where he accuses Harris of exploiting

2470-431: The camp in the evening by reading aloud from Almásy's copy of Herodotus' Histories , after which she and Almásy begin an affair. At one point Katharine stabs and punches Almásy repeatedly because she is angry that he doesn't want to change. Geoffrey discovers the affair after she has ended it, and she is wracked with guilt. Geoffrey attempts to kill all three of them by crashing his plane while they are flying. After Geoffrey

2535-418: The characters feel trapped in a sense. The desert within the novel is a place of freedom, a place that cannot be claimed or owned by any one person. The desert is everlasting, and can never be wavered. This is unlike the war that these characters had become extremely traumatised from. It is a vast nothingness that will always remain nation-less. A place that these characters can seek out in their minds, when there

2600-451: The commonality of their scars— his from work, hers from being "always unlucky." This moment is the beginning of the nun's eventual transformation into the character Alice. He eventually falls asleep and wakes to find a doctor treating his arm and the nun gone. As a young man, Patrick leaves the profession that killed his father and sets out to find the vanished millionaire Ambrose Small . This leads him to Small's mistress Clara Dickens and to

2665-498: 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

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2730-540: The effect of Hana in his life. David Caravaggio is a Canadian thief whose profession is legitimised by the war, as the Allies needed crafty people to steal Axis documents. He is a long-time friend of Hana's father and becomes known as "the man with bandaged hands" when he arrives at the villa; the bandages cover his severed thumbs, the result of an interrogation by the Italians in Florence. He recalls that Ranuccio Tommasoni ordered

2795-424: The expedition will break camp with the coming of war. Almásy is unaware that Katharine is aboard the plane as it flies low over him and then crashes. Geoffrey is killed outright. Katharine is injured internally and Almásy leaves her in the Cave of Swimmers . Caravaggio tells Almásy that British Intelligence knew about the affair. Almásy makes a three-day trek to British-controlled El Taj for help. When he arrives, he

2860-545: The foundation of the subsequent narrative: Depot Creek, the loggers skating, learning about dynamite, etc. "The Bridge" deals with the construction of the Bloor Street Viaduct , which will link eastern Toronto with the centre of the city and will carry traffic, water and electricity across the Don Valley. R.C. Harris, the city's Commissioner of Public Works often visits the bridge at night. One night, five nuns wander onto

2925-517: The growing years of the main character, Patrick Lewis, providing causation for his subsequent actions in the novel. As a young boy in Depot Creek, Ontario, Patrick watches the loggers arrive in town in the winter, work in the mills in the other seasons, and skate on the frozen river. Patrick's father, Hazen Lewis, becomes a dynamiter and is meticulous when washing his clothes each evening to remove remnants of explosives on his apparel. These elements form

2990-514: The interrogation tactic. This is a reference to a man by the same name who was murdered by the historical Caravaggio in 1606. The mental and physical outcome of the torture is that Caravaggio has "lost his nerve" and ability to steal. Hana remembers him as a very human thief. He would always be distracted by the human element while doing a job. For instance, if an advent calendar was on the wrong day, he would fix it. She also has deep feelings of love for Caravaggio. At times, Caravaggio seems to display

3055-407: The moment. In other words, Hana was caring for someone who was partly responsible for her village's demise. The moral of this is that Hana, the English patient, Kip and Caravaggio had fewer physical resemblances to each other than they had had of humanistic desires. Thus, Michael Ondaatje may have wanted us to see that what's on the outside does not matter as much as what's on the inside when rebuilding

3120-410: The narrator of the story, who act as observers finding "'truths'" in order to construct a cohesive history representative of all the parts that created it. Devi draws on Ondaatje's use of converging narratives to uncover the vastly different experiences of immigrants in Canada, and symbolize the overarching issue of how their unofficial history is erased from the official histories. The novel's title

3185-413: The nature of Ondaatje's use of metaphysical aspects of body, history and nation in the novel. Amy Novak and Mirja Lobnik have separately analysed aspects of the treatment of memory in the novel. Thomas Harrison and Rachel Friedman have each examined the references and use of Herodotus in the novel. Madhumalati Adhikari has critiqued the treatment of the Second World War and its effects on the characters of

3250-482: The novel. A major symbol of the novel is the desert. It serves as a representation of the characters' war experiences and how they came to gather in the villa. A passage in the novel notes "The desert could not be claimed or owned." Caravaggio had stepped away from the war for a brief time when he drifted into the villa and encountered an old flame, Hana. Kip elects to stay in the villa, a straggler from his unit, to continue searching for explosives. He also finds there

3315-502: 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

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3380-442: 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. The rejection of a nationalistic identity enables Almásy to rationalise his duplicitous actions with his associates. He socialises with, and

3445-571: The reconstructed villa is almost as opposite of each other in appearance as they could be. Hana was young, healthy, and capable of caring for more than one person at a time, but she mainly attended to the English patient. In contrast to Hana, the English patient was handicapped and on his death bed. But little did Hana know, in the English patient's past, he had worked with the Germans on other desert expeditions way before their paths had crossed. However, his amnesia could not allow him to remember such things at

3510-404: The roof. Patrick and Buck paint Caravaggio in the blue of the roof so he can hide and escape. He steals new clothes and changes his dressing. Jumping a milk train , he makes his way north toward cottage country. He has a scar from an attack from which Patrick saved him by yelling out a square dance call. Caravaggio recalls his first robbery, in the course of which he broke his ankle while retrieving

3575-529: The severely burned "English" patient's memories from before his accident and current events at the bomb-damaged Villa San Girolamo (in Fiesole ), an Italian monastery, where he is being cared for by Hana, a troubled young Canadian Army nurse. A few chapters are also devoted to Kip, an Indian Sikh, during his time in England training and working as a sapper on unexploded ordnance . The English patient's only possession

3640-471: The show. Patrick visits Alice and learns about Hana, her nine-year-old daughter. Patrick and Alice become lovers. Patrick finds work in a leather company through Alice's friends and meets Nicholas Temelcoff, now a baker. On studying the bridge, Patrick learns about the nun that had fallen off, whose body was never found. He makes the connection after talking with Temelcoff and promises to look after Hana. Patrick travels by train, north of Huntsville , then takes

3705-457: The third act, the character Caravaggio is described as keeping a dog to assist him in his burglaries because he does not trust anyone else. Throughout the book, light (from a lantern, flaming cattails and other sources) and darkness plays heavily in the context of the main characters and development of the plot, i.e., illumination of the Finnish loggers, moonlight, when Caravaggio is learning to become

3770-442: The unfinished bridge and one falls off. Nicholas Temelcoff, a Macedonian immigrant worker on the bridge, saves the nun who fell off the bridge, dislocating his arm. The nun, already missing her veil, tears her habit to make him a sling. Later, at a bar, he offers her brandy, compliments, and a new lease on life. Temelcoff is a silent man who struggles with English yet they are able to transcend their social and language barriers through

3835-479: The villa as those of a group that disregards nationality. They get together and celebrate Hana's twenty-first birthday, a symbol of their friendship and Kip's acceptance. However, when he learns of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima Kip is thoroughly shocked. He leaves immediately while Caravaggio reflects that Westerners would never use such a weapon on their own race. Kip goes back to India and never returns, he marries and has two children though he never stops recalling

3900-407: 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 enemy weaponry and a detailed topography of Tuscany . At one point, Hana risks her life while Kip is defusing a bomb telling him later that she had hoped both of them had died. Shortly after, Kip and Hana develop feelings for one another and begin

3965-573: The war and lived until 1951. 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

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4030-536: The wilderness in the skin of a lion," echoing the theme of converging voices re-telling history. The book was nominated for the Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction in 1987. Ondaatje's more famous 1992 novel, The English Patient , is, in part, a sequel to In the Skin of a Lion , continuing the characters of Hana and Caravaggio as well as revealing the fate of this novel's main character, Patrick Lewis. The first chapter, "Little Seeds," describes

4095-489: The workers and ignoring their plight. Patrick tells Harris how Alice Gull was killed and we learn that she accidentally picked up the wrong satchel, containing a bomb. Exhausted, Patrick falls asleep, and in the morning Harris asks the police to defuse the bombs and bring a nurse for Patrick. Patrick awakes and goes with Hana to retrieve Clara. At Hana's urging, Patrick tells her about Clara. Patrick asks Hana to drive to Marmora. The book ends with "'Lights' he said." This novel

4160-409: Was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart . The novel fictionalizes the lives of the immigrants who played a large role in the building of the city of Toronto in the early 1900s, but whose contributions never became part of the city's official history. Ondaatje illuminates the investment of these settlers in Canada, through their labour, while they remain outsiders to mainstream society. In

4225-724: Was founded in 1895 by Muhammad El-Mahdi es-Senussi (1844–1902), after the Ottomans forced him and the Senussi Order from Jaghbub in the Cyrenaican desert to Kufra. He was the son of the founder and the supreme leader (1859-1902) of the Order. El-Mahdi founded a Zaouia ( madrassa —school) with a mosque with a low octagonal minaret tower here. He also built several tombs of the Senussi family here, which later included his own, therefore making El-Tag

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