The Booker Prize Podcast

The Booker at the Oscars: The English Patient

The Booker Prize Podcast

Show Notes

Welcome back to the second of our Booker at the Oscars mini-series where we explore Booker Prize novels whose silver screen adaptations went on to experience Academy Award success. This time we're revisiting The English Patient, the joint Booker Prize 1992 winner by Michael Ondaatje (the other winner was Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger) and its silver screen counterpart, directed by Anthony Minghella.

In this episode Jo and James:

Share a brief biography of Michael Ondaatje

Summarise the plot of the book, and discuss their thoughts on it

Explore the four main characters we meet in the novel

Delve into Anthony Minghella's film adaptation and the differences between book and film

Reading list:

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-english-patient

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/sacred-hunger

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/black-dogs

Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/the-butcher-boy

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/warlight

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

The Histories by Herodotus

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

A full transcript of the episode is available at our website.

Follow The Booker Prize Podcast so you never miss an episode. Visit http://thebookerprizes.com/podcast to find out more about us, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @thebookerprizes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from The Booker Prize Podcast

May 24, 2024

Earlier this week, author Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann were announced as the winners of the International Booker Prize 2024, for the novel, Kairos. Jenny and Michael join Jo and James to talk about whether their win has truly sunk in yet and what might be next, and administrator of the International Booker Prize, Fiammetta Rocco also joins to give some insight into how the prize works. It's our last episode of this season of The Booker Prize Podcast so make sure you don't miss this one – but all our previous episodes will continue to be available so you can listen whenever you want.

May 16, 2024

With under a week until the International Booker Prize 2024 ceremony, we're back with the second part of our deep dive into this year's six shortlist books. Listen in to hear what Jo and James think of the remaining three books on the list, common themes that run across the shortlisted reads and which book they want to see win the award.

May 2, 2024

We're three weeks away from the International Booker Prize 2024 award ceremony, so we thought it was high time to take a deep dive into this year's six shortlist books. In the first of two parts, we're exploring three of the books on this week's podcast episode. Listen in to hear what Jo and James make of them, common themes that run across the shortlisted reads and how the International Booker can expand one's world through literature.

Apr 11, 2024

Esi Edugyan’s thrilling novel follows the astonishing adventures of its titular character, Washington Black, whose escape from the brutal cane plantations of Barbados was only the beginning. Shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize and set to be released as a glitzy television adaptation starring Sterling K Brown and co-produced by Edugyan later this year, what better excuse to dive into the novel?

Mar 28, 2024

In 1984, many assumed that J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun had the Booker Prize in the bag. But actually, it was Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac that clinched the prize in the end. This week, we're exploring the bookies' favourite vs the Booker winner to ask which book should have won: Brookner's short, quiet novel set in a genteel Swiss hotel or Ballard's long and action-packed autobiographical epic set in wartime Shanghai.

See all episodes →