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
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.
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.
[ 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.’
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.
Bristling with intelligence and shimmering with romance, this novel tests the boundary between history and myth. Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the course of his adventures, Patrick's life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning The English Patient. 256 pp.
WINNER OF THE GOLDEN MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018'Magnificent' Sunday Times'The best piece of fiction I've read in years' Independent on SundayThe final curtain is closing on the Second World War and in an abandoned Italian village. Hana, a nurse, tends to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is damaged beyond recognition and haunted by painful memories. The only clue Hana has to unlocking his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of The Histories by Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes detailing a tragic love affair.
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 new novel by the internationally acclaimed Booker winner will come to readers of The English Patient as a surprise, although once more the unmistakable richness of language and emotional power is there in full force. The result is a profoundly disturbing and timeless work of art and a revelatory journey.
One of the most admirable and enthralling literary novels of the year Daily Mail
In a narrative as mysterious as memory itself - at once both shadowed and luminous - Warlightis a vivid, thrilling novel of violence and love, intrigue and desire. It is 1945, and London is still reeling from the Blitz and years of war. 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel, are apparently abandoned by their parents, left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and grow both more convinced and less concerned as they get to know his eccentric crew of friends- men and women with a shared history, all of whom seem determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all he didn?t know or understand in that time, and it is this journey - through reality, recollection, and imagination - that is told in this magnificent novel.
In 1970s California, a makeshift family of a father, daughter, adopted daughter and farm hand's lives are shattered by a traumatic event and they are sent off on separate courses.
A collection of Canadian short stories. The book includes works by Alastair Macleod, Gabrielle Roy, Wallace Stegner, George Bowering, Margaret Atwood, Sinclair Ross, Alice French, Mordecai Richler, Audrey Thomas, Sean Virgo, Sandra Birdsell, Elizabeth Smart, Alice Munro and many others.
From the Booker Prize-winning author of the English Patient, this four works by Michael Ondaatje span both the author's career and his means of literary expression_novel, memoir, and poetry...
Der Cutter als Philosoph »Heitere Gespräche voller Esprit und Witz, Anekdoten und intellektuellem Boulevard von zwei charmanten Kinoerzählern.« Bernhard Sinkel in der ›Süddeutschen Zeitung‹. Im Gespräch mit Michael Ondaatje gibt der außerordentliche Künstler Walter Murch Einblick in seine Arbeit - und nebenbei amüsante Anekdoten aus Hollywood zum Besten. Ein wunderbares Dialog- und Bilderbuch!
Michael Ondaatje, der berühmte Autor des Englischen Patienten, und Walter Murch, ebenso berühmter Cutter und Tonmann, unterhalten sich in diesem Buch über Literatur und Film und alles, was damit zu tun hat: über den Einfluss anderer Künstler auf den zeitgenössischen Film, über ihre Erfahrungen beim Machen und Betrachten von Filmen, über die Bedeutung des Begriffs Realismus im Film wie im Roman und über zahlreiche Autoren und Regisseure. Eine Fundgrube für alle Freunde der Literatur und des Kinos.
Ondaatjes lyrisches Werk zeigt seine Fähigkeit, lebendige Bilder zu schaffen und in kleinen Details große Welten zu entfalten. Ähnlich wie die srilankischen Dichter behandelt er Themen wie Begehren, Sehnsucht und Verlust.
Billy the Kid, geboren 1859 und mit 22 Jahren erschossen, gilt als die größte Legende des Wilden Westens. Michael Ondaatje verleiht ihm eine Stimme und lässt ihn sein letztes, tödliches Abenteuer poetisch erzählen. Stefanie Schillings kraftvolle Holzschnitte illustrieren das Martyrium dieses Rittes.
Die Harenberg Bild-Tageskalender zeigen mehr als nur das Datum: An allen Tagen des Jahres exzellente Fotos auf den Vorderseiten und dazu informative Texte auf den Rückseiten - so lautet das bewährte Erfolgskonzept. Der Harenberg Bild-Tageskalender "Literatur" öffnet die Tür ins Reich der Bücher: Autorenporträts, Buch-Umschläge und -Illustrationen, Dokumente und Szenenfotos zeigen, wer oder was Rang und Namen in der Literatur hat.§Auf den Vorderseiten: täglich faszinierende Bilder; klares Kalendarium; kurze Bilderklärungen. Auf den Rückseiten: Hintergrundinformationen zum Bild des Tages; Sternzeichen und Namenspatrone; Auf- und Untergangszeiten von Sonne und Mond. Der Serviceteil im Anhang: Register mit allen Einzelthemen des jeweiligen Kalenders; Übersichten; Schulferien für Deutschland und Österreich.§
Bloemlezing van veertien verhalen van binnen- en buitenlandse auteurs over woestijnen.
Kanadský autor se v tomto románu vrací do země svého dětství na Srí Lanku a konfrontuje minulost této exotické krajiny s její rozporuplnou současností. Hrdinkou je soudní lékařka, která se vrací do rodné země sužované občanskou válkou a politickým terorem, aby našla důkazy o vraždění civilistů. Při pátrání po pachatelích těchto zločinů se setkává s lidmi, kteří jí pomohou uvědomit si, že realita této země je mnohem složitější, než se jí po dlouhém odloučení na první pohled jeví, a že i pravda, o kterou usiluje, může mít více podob. Hrdinka, která se musí postupně vyrovnat se svými západem poznamenanými názory na dobro a zlo, nachází opět vřelý vztah ke své rodné zemi a dění na ostrově se stává již natrvalo součástí jejího života. Závažné politické téma je rámováno barvitým nekonvenčním obrazem země, jejích duchovních a přírodních tradic.
Autor Anglického pacienta přichází s vizionářským veršovaným románem o americkém násilí. William Bonney zabil prvního člověka ve svých 12 letech. V 21 letech měl za sebou dalších 19 vražd... Bravurní vypravěč M. Ondaatje, opíraje se o dobové prameny, fotografie, ale i vlastní představivost, popisuje cestu Billyho Kida Novým Mexikem kolem roku 1880.
