In the Skin of a Lion

Ranging from 1920s Toronto (In the Skin of a Lion, 1987) to Italy during World War II (The English Patient, 1992; Booker Prize) and Sri Lanka wracked by civil war (Anil’s Ghost, 2000), Ondaatje’s lyrical, elliptical narratives spotlight a small coterie of people drawn together by a mystery that…

…about life in Ceylon; and In the Skin of a Lion (1987), a novel about the clash between rich and poor in early 20th-century Toronto.