Handwriting

The way his novels are truly poetic, Ondaatje’s thrilling poems often read like exquisite, unwritten Ondaatje novels. * Independent on Sunday *
Handwriting explores Sri Lankan history, geography, ceremonies and myths. It is crowded with scintillating images, such as a tightrope-walker caught in a power cut, beautiful colours and textures * New Statesman *
Michael Ondaatje defies the normal distinction between poet and novelist. His writing is consistently tuned to a visionary pitch – Graham Swift
Ondaatje’s poems are a joy, as all his writing is. The wonderful twists, painful and funny; the utterly individual touch and sumptuous wealth of language; they’re all familiar, but as one would expect, they seem to keep getting better, more assured and sometimes more crazy – W. S. Merwin
His poems read with the same whimsical precision and authority one finds in Ondaatje’s prose. He is the most sensibly ironic writer I’ve read in years, and the most generously disposed. Would that all worlds were this deftly attended – Robert Creeley
A breathtaking collection… If you’re going to buy one book this year, buy this one. Ten years from now you’ll still be reading it with pleasure – Sam Solecki * Books in Canada *
The final poem, “Last Ink,” explains why the need to preserve human experience through art is as instinctive as the desire to die in a lover’s arms. Dealing with large-scale emotions and scenes of love and war, these are poems that strike to the heart – Martha Silano

Michael Ondaatje is the author of seven novels, a memoir titled Running in the Family, a non-fiction book on film titled The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, and several books of poetry, including The Cinnamon Peeler and Handwriting.

The English Patient received the Booker Prize in 1992 and the Golden Man Booker in 2018, and was made into a film directed by Anthony Minghella. Anil’s Ghost was awarded the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Medicis.

Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.

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