Michael Ondaatje The English Patient

The English Patient tells the story of four very different individuals who find themselves living together in abandoned villa in Northern Italy in the final months of World War II. Hana, a young Canadian nurse, has stayed behind at the villa (previously used as an improvised hospital) to care for the badly burned titular “English Patient,” who is also suffering from amnesia.
They are joined successively by David Caravaggio, a Canadian thief-turned-spy and family friend of Hana, and Kip Singh, a young Indian working for the British as a “sapper,” or military engineer specializing in bomb disposal. The story shifts perspective between the characters, with a romance unfolding between Hana and Kip as we also gradually learn about the English Patient’s back-story, which contains a tragic romance of its own.