Warlight by Michael Ondaatje I will be the first to admit that I have issues reading books that are mostly character studies with little dialogue.  This is also why I have problems reading non-fiction books.  It took me an embarrassingly long time to get through The English Patient, and spoiler alert, it’s not like the movie.  With that said, Michael Ondaatje is an enormously talented writer.  I picked this book before I looked to see the author was because the premise sounded so intriguing.  Nathaniel and his family live in England during WWII.  Shortly after the war, Nathaniel and his sister are told that their father must travel to Asia for work for a year and their mother will accompany him.  During that time, a friend of their mother’s (nicknamed The Moth by the Nathaniel and his sister, Rachel) will stay at their home to care for them.  A year goes by and though Nathaniel and Rachel’s home becomes a revolving door for a whole host of odd-ball characters (including a retired boxer they’ve given the moniker The Pimlico Darter), their parents don’t return.  What follows is Nathaniel’s attempt to understand why his parents disappeared, what caused his mother’s eventual return, and how The Moth and his seemingly innocuous friends fit into the puzzle.  Despite the fact that I was hesitant about starting this book, once I got into it, I couldn’t stop.  Michael Ondaatje’s words and world force you to linger in the sentences, settle into the story like a cozy chair, and postulate on the possible results of different paths taken.