He takes us through the sweep of history in the island of Sri Lanka, summoning up stories of war and love, of goon squads, kings and robbers, and of two millennia of culture, to create a tapestry of images, scents and gestures — the unburial of stone Buddhas, a family of stilt-walkers crossing a field, the pattern of teeth marks on skin drawn by a monk from memory — that reveal the longing for and expose our anguish over, lost loves, homes and lost ways of expression.

Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's return to the place of his family, a remembrance, an honoring and a lament of astonishing beauty. It is an irresistible work of poetic genius, and reaffirms Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. (From Vintage Canada)