'Warlight' Illumines Family Secrets In Ondaatje's Latest
Set during and after World War II, Warlight follows a young man trying to find out what really happened when his parents disappeared and left him and a young sister in the care of two mystery men.
The title of Michael Ondaatje's atmospheric new novel — Warlight — refers most directly to the dimmed lights that guided emergency traffic during wartime blackouts, but it applies equally to the cloak of secrecy and uncertainty that blankets this haunting tale.
Much of the action — lovers' trysts in abandoned buildings, covert wartime operations, transportation of contraband goods and illegally imported greyhound racing dogs — takes place not just in the metaphorical darkness
