In his first novel since The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje displays again the richness of imagery and the keen emotional surety that are the hallmarks of his writing.

'This is why I read, this is why literature matters, this, in short, is IT!...By the closing pages Anil's Ghost has come as close to a holy book as a novel ever should'--Independent

'This work of "fiction" will endure as a history of these times showing us how we may face even the most extreme actions of our civilization through wise, compassionate re-creation'--The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka

Anil"s Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of the civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to Sri Lanka as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to investigate the organized murder campaigns engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past - a story propelled by a riveting mystery.