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Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaatje

© Paula E. Kirman

Anil's Ghost
Michael Ondaatje
McClelland & Stewart
$35.99l hardcover, 311 pp.
ISBN 0-7710-6893-X

Anil's Ghost is Michael Ondaatje's first novel since his best-selling The English Patient, best known to American audiences in movie form. As is characteristic of his work, Anil's Ghost is rich with imagery that lingers long after the covers are closed.

Anil Tissera, is a young woman who is a forensic anthropologist. She travels to modern day Sri Lanka, the land where she was born, (also Ondaatje's place of birth), to work with a human rights group to work with local officials interested in discovering the sources and causes of large-scale, organized campaigns of murder which plague the island.

Anil and her cohorts discover bodies and skeletons, examining them in minute detail for any evidence revealing the causes of death. One in particular becomes the focus of attention for Anil. Nicknamed "Sailor," Anil struggles to reveal this person's history, and in doing so, the past tragedies and emotional wounds in her life and the lives of those around her become unravelled.

Probably more striking than the plot itself is the setting. Ondaatje paints a vivid scene of landscapes and characters. At times the details are brutally real, when describing the untimely deaths brought about by a country embroiled in constant struggles and wars.

The novel is also a mystery. With only a skeleton, Anil uses her forensic abilities to hypothesize the cause of death and how it occurred - leading to the horrific truth of what actually took place. In the meantime, Anil learns about the lives of the others with whom she works, and comes across a few surprises along the way.

Anil's Ghost is an example of the novel as a form of artistry. It is a form that Michael Ondaatje has mastered well.