The English patient - Michael Ondaatje

An unforgettable story of love and war, and of three men and a woman: a young Canadian nurse, a Sikh bomb-disposal expert, a thief turned spy, and a man burnt beyond recognition — who come together in the final moments of the Second World War. At the heart of this spectacular novel is a spellbinding mystery: the identity of the unknown patient haunted by memories of a turbulent love affair in the North African desert. Sweeping from the romantic world of the great desert explorers to a gathering pre-war Cairo, from England during the blitz to an abandoned villa in Tuscany, The English Patient sets love and passion against the devastation of war and the politics of nations.