June 1996

Haven't heard from your favorite author in a while? Curious to know if another book is on the way? Send us a note (email and snail mail address below) and we'll see what we can find out for you. Each month the BookPage Burning Questions staff goes to the ends of the Earth and back again to find the answers to our readers' most burning questions. The answers are printed each month, both online as well as in our print edition. Go ahead, try to stump us!

From literature to film

Dear Burning Questions:
Michael Ondaatje gained worldwide recognition with The English Patient (Vintage). I knew him first as a poet, but I also love his prose. Besides In the Skin of a Lion (Penguin) and his memoir Running in the Family (Vintage), what else has he written? Also, is it true that The English Patient is being made into a movie?
Fred Harrison
Little Rock, AR

Born in 1943 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Canadian novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje has published several collections of poetry, the first of which was the 1967 The Dainty Monsters (Coach House). Secular Love and The Cinnamon Peeler (Alfred A. Knopf) followed in 1984 and 1989 respectively.

Ondaatje is better known, however, for his prose works which include those you mentioned plus The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (Vintage; Penguin) and Coming through Slaughter (Vintage; Penguin).

The movie The English Patient will be released this fall and will star Ralph Fiennes [rafe fines] and Juliette Binoche [jewleeyet beenosh]. We hear that this is the largest film that Miramax has ever made.

A posthumous work from a beloved vet and author

Dear Burning Questions:
I've enjoyed each of James Herriot's heartwarming books on his work as an English vet. Like millions of others, I was saddened by his death last year. Did he leave behind any unfinished manuscript that could become another volume in his wonderful autobiographical work?
Ronnie Poore
Greenville, SC
via the Internet

James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories will be published by St. Martin's Press this fall, but, as of now, there are no other books scheduled for publication.

A rebirth, of sorts

Dear Burning Questions:
I have been reared on the great southern writers, so when I read that Flannery O'Connor named Nathanael West as one of her favorite authors, I immediately bought Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust. Now I too count myself as one of this short-lived writer's many enthusiasts. I have not, however, been able to find a copy of A Cool Million. Is it even in print?
Kate Chrisman
Aspen, CO

Nathanael West, born Nathan Weinstein (1903-1940), was best known for his satirical novels written in the 1930s. A Cool Million, which has been out of print for quite some time, will be reissued by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the fall along with The Dream Life of Balso Snell (his first novel). Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust are still available from New Directions.

Big sleazy in the Big Easy

Dear Burning Questions:
Is Julie Smith going to do any more Rebecca Schwartz mysteries? Skeletons in the Closet is the last one I read.
via the Internet

The Kindness of Strangers, sequel to House of Blues, the Edgar-winning series of New Orleans mysteries starring Skip Langdon, will appear next month (Fawcett), At the moment, however, there are no other Rebecca Schwartz mysteries scheduled to appear.

We welcome your Burning Questions about favorite, missing, or poky authors. Ask, and we shall shake our Eight Ball for you.

Write us with your BQs: Burning Questions, 2501 21st Ave. South, Suite 5, Nashville, TN 37212. Or email us at Burning_Questions@bookpage.com.

Alas, we regret that personal replies are not possible.

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