Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight was one of the few books I physically read in 2019. I believe it came out in 2018 and was on the long list for The Booker Prize, for those of you who care about these things.

This was one of those books that was heartbreakingly beautiful and also so bittersweet and sad that I was devastated when it was over.

It follows 14 year old Nathaniel towards the end of the second world war in London. Nathaniel’s parents leave Nathaniel and his older sister, Rachel, in the care of their lodger while they go off for “work” in Singapore. The lodger, The Moth (actually named Walter), associates with an eccentric crowd that shapes the children’s lives during the postwar period.

Another acquaintance, ‘The Darter’ helps Nathaniel gain employment, where he meets and sleeps with Agnes (not her real name). After the year is up and their parents still haven’t returned, Nathaniel and Rachel begin to suspect that their mother is still in England, and Nathaniel begins to suspect he is being followed.

Nathaniel, Rachel, and Walter are eventually attacked by the men following Nathaniel, and when he and Rachel awaken, they’ve already been rescued, but Walter was killed. They briefly see their mother, who implies that giving up her children was part of “the deal” she made to keep them safe. Nathaniel and Rachel are then separated and rehomed.

In 1959, Nathaniel, now and adult, is working in the Foreign Office. He is part of a censorship effort regarding espionage activities towards the end of the war. Nathaniel is looking for the people from that part of his life, including his mother, which is part of his motivation for working in the Foreign Office. He spends the rest of the book looking for her and the people who so shaped his life as an adolescent.

This is one of those books that hints the past never really stays in the past, and that memory is a construct of the older, wiser self. The second part I admit I didn’t totally come up with on my own, I’m summarizing the reviews I read after the book. The first part I did, though! It’s also obviously a book about the lingering effects of war.

The book itself was beautifully written – the language is engaging and intricate, with many plot points more implied than revealed.

I really enjoyed this book even though it broke my heart. If you don’t like that kind of thing, don’t read it, but if you do…this is a good one.

Tagged: authors: michael ondaatje, books: warlight, genre: fiction, genre: historical fiction, genre: literary fiction