Frank Foley
Frank Foley
lit.lover.frank@gmail.com
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
4-Week Study Group - Canterbury
Starts Tuesday 8th September 2026
Michael Ondaatje is a Canadian poet, novelist and film-maker, born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1943. He has published seven novels and a number of poetry collections, and won the Booker Prize in 1992 for his novel, The English Patient.
Set in Italy during the Second World War, The English Patient interweaves the stories of four disparate characters as they try to make sense of their broken lives. The novel addresses questions of identity and character, and the context in which this is judged, as well as issues of race, ownership and boundaries, and the importance of stories.
"But here they were shedding skins. They could imitate nothing but what they were. There was no defence but to look for the truth in others".
This is a three week group consisting of three 90 minute weekly sessions.
We will explore the main themes and ideas of the book, as well as the structure, the main characters, and the key scenes. Whilst we will try to get a general overview of this wonderful novel, the real energy of the group comes from our open discussions and the meanings and ideas we create in real time. In this respect we are exploring ourselves - our perspectives, judgements, values - as much as we are exploring the novel itself.
Above all, this group is about celebrating literature, rather than analysing it. We will be true literature lovers, excitedly exploring one of the great contemporary novels.
"She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if awaking from sleep with a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams."
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje