The English Patient (McClelland & Stewart) by Michael Ondaatje is just as good as everyone says it is; and surely contains some of the most compelling desert writing in the language (you will swear that Ondaatje must have spent most of his life in the Sahara). The hardcover is expensive, though (we borrowed our copy from a wealthy subscriber), and not likely to be replaced by a paperback for some time. A salubrious side effect of the Booker Prize was the notice it brought to Ondaatje in the foreign press—most notably in the American book trade magazine that changed his name to Sri Lankanborn. Highly recommended.