I’ve been excited to read this book since before I watched the film, and it was much better and more rewarding than I imagined it would be.

The movie seems to focus more on the relationship prior to the accident, while the book focuses more on the man, his past and secrets, and the relationships he builds while dying. The jumps in time to reveal the histories of all characters were not a distraction but easy to follow.

I really loved the chemistry between all characters, the passion and power they each hold, and how quickly I was able to read the book. It was so entertaining that I flew through it quicker than I ever imagined I would, and in the end I was wishing for more.

I highly recommend it to everyone.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book. What I knew from this book is what I saw on a movie poster from the English Patient, which doesn't really describe the book accurate. It's a description of how four people recover from the horrors of World War II. One nurse stays behind in a converted nunnery to take care of a burned beyond recognition Englishman. An old friend and a sappar appear by chance, and each of their stories are told. These passages reveal how these characters deal with their own horror. Hana:"The deepest sorrow, he thought. Where the only way to survive is to excavate everything.""I leaned forward to close a dead soldier's eyes, and he opened them and sneered, "Can't wait to have me dead? You bitch!" He sat up and swept everything on my tray to the floor. So furious. Who would want to die like that? To die with that kind of anger. You bitch! After that I always waited for the bubble in their mouths. I know death now, David. I know all the smells, I know how to divert them from agony. When to give the quick jolt of morphine in a major vein. The saline solution. To make them empty their bowels before they die. Every damn general should have had my job. Every damn general. It should have been a prerequisite for any river crossing. Who the hell were we to be given this responsibility, expected to be wise as old priests, to know how to lead people towards something no one wanted and somehow make them feel comfortable. I could never believe in all those services they gave for the dead. Their vulgar rhetoric. How dare they! How dare they talk like that about a human being dying." The English Patient" We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on my body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography--to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps."The Sappar"There are those destroyed by unfairness and those who are not. If she asks him he will say he has had a good life--his brother in jail, his comrades blown up, and he risking himself daily in this war. In spite of the kindnesses in such people they were a terrible unfairness. He could be all day in a clay pit dismantling a bomb that might kill him at any moment, could come home from the burial of a fellow sapper, his energy saddened, but whatever the trials around him there was always solution and light. But she saw none. For him there were the various maps of fate, and at Amritsar's temple all faiths and classes were welcome and ate together. She herself would be allowed to place money or a flower onto the sheet spread upon the floor and then join in the great permanent singing. ( )

What a captivating read. Truly hypnotic. The movie was awesome, but the book...well, the depth is unmeasurable. This is one of those books with many thought-provoking layers.

Imagine an 'English patient', a Canadian nurse, an Indian Sikh sapper and an Italian thief seeking refuge in an abandoned villa in Southern Italy at the end of the Second World War. Imagine the (possible) relationships and interactions that (could have) occurred between them.

The characterization is superb (none of them were undamaged by the war - spiritually and physically), the prose is enchanting and the description of the surrounding environment is surreal.

And thanks to this book, I shall try to re-read Kipling's Kim again, since the English Patient explained that one must read Kipling slowly, for when one does, Kipling’s phrasing reveals the power of his prose. Will do as advised, Sir! ( )

I didn't enjoy this book all that much. I got confused too many times, and after a while, I found myself asking, when is this going to be over?

The storyline is actually quite a good one, and I imagine that I would have quite enjoyed the book had I not been misled to the point that I couldn't really follow the story anymore.

Perhaps this book is just not for me. ( )

OK, I'm going to start off by saying that I wish I had read this book without having seen the film, as it actually bears little resemblance to it. The novel focusses on the story of the English Patient, but also on the stories of the other three inhabitants of the Italian villa where he is recovering, David Carravagio, Hana and Kip.The book is still intriguing, and jumps between the "present" (1945) and the past histories. Like the film, it is beautiful, mysterious and profound, but I did have to make a conscious effort to ignore my knowledge from the film as often vaguely familiar scenes from the film were subtly different in the book. This was at once lighter in some areas in terms of detail, but also fuller in others. I know understand a lot better about the history of the Second World War in Egypt, which is actually of personal interest to me as that is where my grandad was stationed. It also showed the effect of events like Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the people in the story.I find it difficult to give a conclusive rating on this book, as I'm very aware that I haven't come to it without any preconceptions from the film. That's why I have given it an average and perhaps mediocre rating, as I think I would have had a very different experience if I had come to it fresh. ( )