cover image The English Patient

The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje. Vintage Books USA, $15.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-679-74520-4

Canadian author Ondaatje offers a poetic novel set in a desolate Italian villa in the final days of WWII--a one-week PW bestseller--and an evocative account of a visit with his family in Sri Lanka. (Dec.)