Author: Michael Ondaatje
Format: 138x206mm
Number of pages: 256
Binding: Hard
Manufacturer: Jota
Year of publication: 2019

A new novel from the author of the world-famous bestseller The English Patient. Is it better to know the answers to all the questions of the past, or do you prefer to live with the unrevealed truth? Michael Ondaatje comes up with another brilliantly written novel, set in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The story of the teenage Nathaniel begins to unfold in 1945 in London. He had just heard that his father and mother were going to work in Singapore for a year. The boy and his sister Rachel will be cared for by a strange family friend nicknamed Mol. Who is Mol? Gaolbird? Spy? Smuggler? The children grow up close to Mol and his equally quirky friends. However, this strange new family seems to be trying to protect and educate both siblings - albeit in a very unusual way. Are these people really who they say they are? Nathaniel is constantly encountering mysteries and obscurities. They concern not only Mol and his friends, but also his own life and especially the life of his mother. Everything around him seemed to be shrouded in fog and illuminated only by the dim emergency lighting used in Britain during the war to protect against enemy bombing. Many years later, already as an adult, Nathaniel becomes an employee of the State Department archive and gradually penetrates into materials related to the war period. Only now is he beginning to understand the connections that permanently marked his childhood and adolescence. "We run our lives with stories that just sort of hold us together," he muses in conclusion. The story of Emergency Lighting, on the other hand, is rich, full of tension and unexpected twists, but at the same time it encourages the reader to think.