Robert M. (shotokanchef) reviewed on 5/21/2012 + 813 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

At the windup of World War II in Italy, a Canadian nurse and her badly burned patient refuse to evacuate a bombed out villa that had been used as a hospital. She is soon joined by a thief who knew her and her father in Canada. Then a Sikh sapper shows up to defuse the numerous mines that have been left on the property. The center of attention is the patient, but all they know of him is that he is an English pilot who crashed in the North African desert; identity unknown. As the novel unravels you will gradually gain insight to his identity, but given his condition, how he ends up north of Florence, Italy, from the North African desert is still a mystery. So is the fate of three of the principals in the novel. From time to time the author waxes poetically, yet in prose, as he leads us through his mystery. He also creates his patient as a desert explorer thus satiating the reader with place names in the vast desert sea of North Africa, much of which he ties to The Histories of Herodotus. The well-read reader will appreciate his numerous references to other literary works across the ages; others may want to investigate these enroute. This is an interesting tale: well worthy of its Booker Prize.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details