Warlight

A Novel

By: Michael Ondaatje

Narrated by: Steve West

From 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 itself - shadowed and luminous at once - we follow the story of 14-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.

©2018 Michael Ondaatje (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"London-born narrator Steve West effortlessly mixes tones of mystery, uncertain memory, sophistication, and innocence in Ondaatje's latest novel.... A wholly original listening experience." (AudioFile)

“Warlight is a quiet new masterpiece from Michael Ondaatje… An elegiac thriller [with] the immediate allure of a dark fairy tale. In Warlight, all is illuminated, at first dimly then starkly, but always brilliantly.” (Anna Mundow, The Washington Post)

“If writers are cartographers of the heart, Michael Ondaatje’s oeuvre could fill an atlas...[he] evokes a kaleidoscope of ideas and moods with exquisite lyricism... Warlight is an intricate ballet of longing and deception, and a singular ode to the mother-child bond .” (Hamilton Cain, O Magazine)

Excellent - heartbreaking

Slow in parts but the unsaid or unwritten parts of the story are as important as the ‘ink’; giving texturized emotion to the characters and the times- quite wonderful.

Yawn!!

What could have been a very interesting story was impeded by such languid ( some might say tedious) writing that I could barely finish listening. If you enjoy that kind of writing or The Goldfinch then this is the book for you. If not, skip it. There were too many characters introduced who didn't seem essential to the story. The few sex scenes were clearly told from a male fantasy.

Michael Odjatje

This is a beautifully written book. One of the best I’ve read in many years. remarkable.

Exquisitely delicate & bold!

A splendid narration of Ondatje's graceful stitches and colorful threads of broken hearts, damaged souls!

Not the English Patient

I enjoyed the characters in the book, but I found the book a bit too shrouded in mystery and uncertainty for my tastes. Still, it was well written and evocative. Yet, I wouldn't recommend it. So many loose ends that didn't really make sense.

Wonderful!

Beautifully written and exquisitely narrated. Loved this. Michael Ondaatje never disappoints. I loved this…highly recommended.

Instant favorite

I loved every single thing about this book. The gorgeous prose. The people inhabiting the story. The pitch perfect narration. I kept slowing down and listening to chapters over just to extend the book and savor every morsel one more time. Perfection.

A master of language and story

This is an extraordinary novel - lush language, surprising and well developed characters and haunting revelations that pull you in from the opening sentence.

Excellent book, excellent reader

This is a complex, subtle, beautifully written book. When I finished it I reread it immediately .
I also bought the audio version, to go back and forth between listening and reading. The reader was so good he made the book even better, and more accessible. Highly recommend both book and audiobook.

interesting and unpredictable

I enjoyed this story. Someone trying to reconstruct the lives of others two were involved in their own life. Sometimes I wasn't listening closely and I think I may go back and listen again. Not listening closely only because I was in a hurry to finish for my book group.