Michael Ondaatje is an author whose works delve into the intricate connections between memory, history, and identity. His writing often blends lyrical beauty with narrative power, immersing readers in the swirl of human experience. Through his poetry, novels, and memoirs, Ondaatje explores themes of exile, migration, and the search for belonging. His style is marked by a fragmented structure and evocative imagery that reveals profound truths about the human condition.
"The Palestine Festival of Literature was established in 2008. Bringiong together writers from all corners of the globe, it aims to help Palestinians break the cultural siege imposed by the Isreali military occupation, to strengthen their artistic links with the the rest of the world."--Book flap
Here are Michael Ondaatje's conversations with film and sound editor Walter Murch
Winner of nine Academy Awards and almost every critic's heart, The English Patient (based on Michael Ondaatje's prizewinning novel of love and loss during World War II) is one of the most acclaimed films of modern times. Hana, a nurse, (Juliette Binoche) tends to an archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) who has been burnt to a crisp in a plane crash. As their relationship intensifies, he flashes back to his overwhelming passion for a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas). Meanwhile, Hana begins a new romance with a man who defuses bombs (Naveen Andrews) and Willem Dafoe almost steals the show as the thumbless thief Caravaggio. The intricately layered flashback narrative, sounding the depths of the lovers' hearts, improves with repeated viewings--especially with the sharp picture and digital sound of the digital video disc.
Michael Ondaatje’s new selected poems, The Cinnamon Peeler, brings together poems written between 1963 and 1990, including work from his most recent collection, Secular Love. These poems bear witness to the extraordinary gifts that have won high praise for this truly original poet and novelist.
[ transcribed from the back cover ] ‘A compassionate and convincing portrait not only of a savage individual but of the casually brutal human wilderness in which Billy was both villain and victim. Ondaatje’s techniques of many-dimensioned collage and flash-back are sharply conceived ad brilliantly carried through. He creates the near-madness of Billy and his companions, the paranoia of the guardians of law and order, and the crazy instability of one era of the American Dream.’
With A Year of Last Things, acclaimed novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to poetry, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery'My life always stops for a new book by him' JHUMPA LAHIRI, author of The Namesake'Timeless... Remarkable, incomparable' TERRANCE HAYES, author of So to SpeakBorn in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived there since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world - describing himself as a 'mongrel', someone born out of diverse cultures.Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Moliere's chair during his last stage performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the Californian coast and loved Canadian rivers, merging memory with the present, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery, love and loss. As he writes in the opening poem:Reading the lines he loveshe slips them into a pocket,wishes to die with his clothesfull of torn-free stanzasand the telephone numbersof his children in far citiesPoetry - where language is made to work hardest and burns with a gem-like flame - is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate history.
The life of Billy the Kid is marked by violence, with a notorious reputation for having killed a man for every year of his short life. His story culminates in a tragic betrayal when he is shot dead by a former friend, highlighting themes of friendship, betrayal, and the consequences of a life steeped in crime. This gripping narrative explores the complexities of his character and the turbulent era in which he lived.
Certain special places move us at a profound level with a kind of inner beauty that puts us in direct touch with the spirit. It might be a temple, a church, a commemorative monument, a wayside shrine or a landscape feature that is saturated in the ambience of ancient sacred traditions. Such places are worth taking the trouble to visit. They add meaning to our lives, awakening a sense of awe, beauty or tranquillity. Accompanying the superb photographs are evocative descriptions of each place, many of them from esteemed writers who share with us their personal responses in their inimitable style
Based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of New Orleans, this novel is a recreation of a remarkable musical life and a tragic conclusion. Michael Ondaatje builds a picture of a man who by day worked in a barber shop and at night unleashed his talent.
In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.
