Book Club in a Box Discusses Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost

Ondaatje’s novel, Anil’s Ghost, presents readers with a human face to a complicated political event, the civil war in Sri Lanka, in the last century. Although a cease-fire was declared in 2002, this war continues in many ways. Ondaatje presents an intimate and detailed picture of the costs and pain of civil war as uncovered through the novel’s main character, Anil, a Sri-Lankan born, American trained forensic anthropologist. Bookclub-in-a-Box will guide readers through the timely and timeless questions that Ondaatje poses about the nature of war, a topic which is extremely relevant to today’s troubled world.