And except for Patrick, the main protagonist, the other dominant characters are mostly immigrants, whose lives and toils are described with painstaking detail, but still subtly sensual. Ondaatje illuminates the investment of these settlers in Canada, through their labour, while they remain outsiders to mainstream society.

He says he will go pick Clara up with Hana, telling the young girl that he will tell her about Clara on the way. Please know that I am a brittle and crotchety reader, so please don't take my opinions on these novels as universal. Patrick’s story sheds light on the history of Toronto’s foundational infrastructure and the people who labored to build it. Patrick is enraged by her death, and because Alice always believed that the rich exploited the poor laborers, he leaves Hana with Nicholas and goes to avenge Alice’s death by bombing the Muskoka Hotel, a place frequented by the wealthy of Toronto. At the time, I thought he was a romantic figure; now I think of this revenant as some version of myself that I tried to kill, but could not, in the spring of 1987.I had hooped to read about the development and growth of Toronto but feel that I am really none the wiser. Patrick finds Small living in a house owned by a timber company, and Small attempts to set him on fire—once by dropping kerosene on him and then by throwing a Molotov cocktail. Soon Clara leaves Patrick for Ambrose, and even though Clara knows where Ambrose is hiding, she asks Patrick not to follow her.

The father, Cato, was killed doing dangerous labor work, and Patrick becomes a surrogate father to Hana, eventually adopting her. The sight excites Patrick’s imagination but he feels too shy to join them and walks back home, amazed by this magical scene. Among his many Canadian and international recognitions, his novel The English Patient won the 1992 Man Booker Prize, was adapted into a multi-award winning Oscar movie, and was awarded the Golden Man Booker Prize in 2018; Anil’s Ghost won the Giller Prize, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the Prix Médicis; and Warlight was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. In the Skin of a Lion is a love story and an irresistible mystery set in the turbulent, muscular new world of Toronto in the 20s and 30s.Story arcs left hanging, dangling tantalizingly (a nun falling off a bridge to be caught in mid-air, but then what.

Patrick and Alice then begin a romantic relationship that makes Patrick feel joyous and fulfilled in a way he has never experienced before.One that stands out for me are skaters, on a creek, in the dark of night, each holding a sheaf of blazing cats’ tails before them. Ondaatje uncovers the story of those whose labour created Toronto landmarks in the early twentieth century, deftly knitting up truth and myth, revealing the lives of those who were forgotten in the official version of history. In the 1920 and 30’s Toronto is building a bridge under and over the lake and when that’s done a waterworks is started. But my mood and the timing were such that my heart just wasn’t invested in this book, and that makes it very difficult for me to separate my apathy toward the act of reading it with any apathy I might feel as a result of the story itself. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.