With "A Year of Last Things," the multi-award-winning novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to poetry, reflecting on a life full of exile and discovery. Born in Sri Lanka during World War II, Ondaatje was sent as a child to study in London and later moved to Canada. These poems reflect the life of a writer, traveler, and observer of the world – describing himself as "confused," someone born of different cultures.
Here, rediscovering the influence of each border he crossed, he moves back and forth through time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Molière's chair during his last theatrical performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the coast of California and beloved rivers of Canada, merging memory with the present, reflecting on a life full of exile, discovery, love, and loss.
As he writes in the first poem: “Reading the lines he loves, he puts them in a pocket, wishes to die with his clothes filled with torn verses and the phone numbers of his children in faraway cities.” Poetry – where language is forced to work harder and burns with a precious flame – is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate story.
Pages: 128, Dimensions: 14.5x14.5cm
