Running in the Family

The author of The English Patient journeys home in Running in the Family, a spellbinding memoir of an exotic place and time. Multi-award-winning author Michael Ondaatje was born in a country with two names. For him, it is both Sri Lanka and Ceylon.

This classic recording features vintage music from the Jazz Age, along with the soft, sensuous voice of Michael Ondaatje himself. The lush narrative weaves together a charismatic tale that is part family history, part travelogue, and all magic. Against the vivid canvas of colonial Ceylon, Ondaatje burrows into the past. The resultant portrait is one of an intoxicating culture where wealthy families spend their days drinking and gambling and passionate love affairs reign.

At the time of this recording in 1984, Ondaatje was just 41 years old, flush with the success of his early career. He speaks his own words in an intimate, understated tone. Listeners will be seduced by the sound of his voice as well as the beauty of his writing.