Michael Ondaatje - Warlight (Penguin, 2018) ****

This is the story of two children, Nathaniel and Rachel, brother and sister, who grow up as orphans when their parents suddenly abandon them when they're young adolescents. They grow up under the supervision of a shade figure, named The Moth, who looks after them initially from a distance, but gradually the two children get mixed up in the criminal activities of the gang The Moth belongs to.

In the second part of the book, Nathaniel is older and tries to put all the missing pieces back together, including the fact that his mother had been a spy, and even many of the facts and events do not make sense yet, he's trying to turn everything into an understandable and coherent story.

"If you grow up with uncertainty you deal with poeple only on a daily basis, but to be even safer on an hourly basis. You do not concern yourself with you must or should remember about them. You are on your own. So it took me a long time to rely on the past, and reconstruct how to interpret it. There was no consistency in how I recalled behaviour. I had spent most of my youth balancing, keeping afloat".

Life is like a puzzle, with many pieces that do not fit together, and with many pieces missing.

The writing is good, the story captivating and memorable, the characters interesting and unusual, the atmosphere coherent and kept throughout the book.

A good read.