NATIONAL BEST SELLERFrom the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of The English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement.In a narrative as beguiling and mysterious as memory … mysterious as memory itself–shadowed and luminous at once–we read the story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel, and his older sister, Rachel. In 1945, just after World War II, they stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women joined by a shared history of unspecified service during the war, all of whom seem, in some way, determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings’ mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn’t know and understand in that time, and it is this journey–through facts, recollection, and imagination–that he narrates in this masterwork from one of the great writers of our time.
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If you can make it through the first 100 pages, you will be rewarded. There the pace really picks up, and throughout Ondaajte displays his trademark lyricism and gorgeous writing.
Postwar London, 1945. During the blitz children were sent as far away as Canada to escape the bombing in Central London. In that light the idea of leaving the two children here with virtual strangers doesn’t seem so unusual. The parents in question do not seem to have been upfront about the state of their own relationship leaving their offspring with a sense of abandonment and anxiety. The narrator is the brother,fourteen-year-old Nathaniel. Nathaniel is sexually active and he and his partner refer to their activity as fucking, repeatedly.
An adult Nathaniel discovers that his mother worked as a spy under several aliases and that the people he was surrounded by as a child were there to provide protection. On his mother’s death the home she lived in was swept clean of all material that might have given anyone clues as to her former occupation. Due to his multi-lingual abilities Nathaniel ends up working in an office tower where files created by his mother are stored.
The book jumps back and forth to periods during the war, to his mother’s childhood, and to present day adult Nathaniel.
war or peace
THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BOOKS I HAVE READ IN AWHILE. IT WAS JUST DELICIOUS TO READ, AND THE MYSTERIES THROUGH OUT WERE ALSO INTRIGUING
Not exactly like The English Patient but a strange mystery set in post 1945 England.
One of my favorite books of all times is “The English Patient “ by this author, so I am always waiting for another that good. While this one won’t be a favorite, I gave it a 5 star rating because of the following:
– the language he uses is rich and descriptive, very lyrical and intelligent.
– the main character, while fairly clueless, is someone you can’t help but like, and you want to help him find the answers to all that is puzzling him.
-the story is very original, I have never read anything like it.
– like “The English Patient”, the atmosphere is thick and gloomy, and involves a lot of pain for the main character, but is also written in such an enlightened and literate way that you can’t help liking it.
The language, while beautiful, can be a little too descriptive, especially in the beginning. Keep reading though, it is worth it!
just so so.
Thought the book was good but not as great as the reviews it’s getting. Checked it out because it was on Obama’s 2018 top reading list for fiction. Still worth reading.
This is a hard book to say “yes I loved it” or “no I didn’t like it”. The first part of the book moved slowly; then it took off and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it.
The writing was wonderful; the characters believable. What was difficult to come to grips with was the relationship between Mom and children. Without giving anything away, I’m thankful for the group of people who basically reared these children. What’s sad was Mom’s choices (we really never know much about Dad). Like I said, it’s not cut and dried; whether you like it or not. You have to read it and decide for yourself.
It was so easy to read this page turner which is written beautifully. The authors prose is as beautiful as poetry. I enjoyed every minute and hated to see it end. It’s a masterpiece.
Probably one of the best books every written on war and memory.
Love Ondaatje’s take on memories, how it forms us, stays with us, makes us who we are. “The past is never the past. “. Always a joy to read Mr. Ondaatje’s prose.
Here is the classic set of Russian Matryoshka dolls: A story in a story in a story in a …. But this particular story is written by a man whose command of language, setting and human nuance is stunning. Think of two children mysteriously abandoned by their parents in World War II London in care of a peculiar man known as The Moth. It only gets stranger from there. But twists and turns and sheer magic of the story carried me all too quickly to the bitter (a word I use deliberately) end. Highly recommended.
Am reading now – and, it’s so different from anything else ever!!! It feels realistic. If there was a box to check of SKETCHY CHARACTERS I would! Who leaves their children with these characters?? Guess they could protect them! Would also like to ask the author if this is based on his life! How else could anyone get this storyline?? It’s a fab read.
Wonderful writing. Original story, after WW11. Why is rating bad, I rate very good
“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” Warlight
From the opening line, I fell into under the spell of Nathaniel’s story about how he and his sister Rachel were abandoned at ages fourteen and sixteen to the care of relative strangers, their third-floor lodger, whom they called The Moth, and the Pimlico Dancer.
After their father departed, going to Asia for his work, never to be seen again, their mother stayed with them for two more weeks, sharing bits of her history, enough to lure them into understanding there was much more to her than they knew. Then suddenly she left them, too.
The Moth welcomes shady company into their home. The Darter brings a string of women, none of whom last long. The teens are left alone, sometimes for days.
Nathaniel discovers their mother’s trunk is in the house. She had not left to join her husband. And The Moth wasn’t talking. “He was brilliant,” The Moth says of their father, “but he was not stable.” Both parents are strangers to the teens.
Over the next years, Nathaniel lives in a complicated and uncertain world, accompanying The Darter on nighttime trips that are perhaps criminal activities, and working odd jobs during the day. He has a secret liaison with a girl in empty houses.
Years later, Nathaniel is approached to work in a government position that allows him access to files which he plumbs for information about his mother’s war-related work. He visits people from his past. He pieces together who his mother truly was, the life she kept secret, the fear she lived with, and the lover who brought her into a world of danger.
Warlight is about a man’s search for his mother, the story of the deeply etched marks left by a lost childhood, and an exploration of the stories we weave together just to survive.
I received a free ebook from First to Read.
Strange. Who cares what happened.
Great!