The English Patient is a 1992 (1992 in literature) novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian (Canada) novelist Michael Ondaatje. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian (Italy) villa. The novel won the Canadian Governor Generals Award (1992 Governor Generals Awards) and the Booker Prize for fiction. The novel was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name (The English Patient (film)) in 1996. The narrative is non-linear and the main characters are examined in depth and detail.