Michael Ondaatje, poet, novelist and editor, was born in Sri Lanka. He is best known for his 1992 novel, The English Patient, which won the Booker Prize, and four years later became an Oscar-winning film. His other novels include Coming Through Slaughter and In the Skin of a Lion, as well as several volumes of poetry, including Handwriting. He now lives in Toronto with his wife, and together they edit the literary journal, Bric. Anil's Ghost is published by Bloomsbury.
Also shortlisted: Denis Johnson, The Name of the World (HarperCollins US; Methuen, UK); Ha Jin, Waiting (Pantheon Books, US; Vintage in UK); Philip Roth, The Human Stain (Jonathan Cape)
