Warlight

Warlight (2018) is a historical fiction novel by Sri Lankan-born Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. Ondaatje is best known for his Booker Prize winning novel, The English Patient (1992). Part spy thriller and coming-of-age story, Warlight follows 14-year-old Nathaniel Williams and his older sister, Rachel, in post-World War II London. When their parents depart for a year-long work assignment in Singapore, the siblings are left in the care of an enigmatic guardian named The Moth. Nathaniel grows up uncertain of his safety and his parents’ return and is drawn into the clandestine world of the Moth and the eccentric associates who shape his youth. As an adult, Nathaniel gradually pieces together a narrative of his past and his mother’s wartime secrets from the fragments of his personal memories and his job at the government archives. The novel explores themes including The Subjective Nature of Memory,  The Lasting Impact of War, and The Multifaceted Nature of Identity. 

This guide references the 2018 Borzoi Books, Knopf Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, sexual content, and gender discrimination.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in post-World War II London when Nathaniel Williams and his older sister, Rachel, learn that their parents will depart on a year-long business assignment in Singapore, leaving them in the care of an enigmatic colleague and named Walter, who has been lodging in their home, Ruvigny Gardens. The siblings, 14 and 16, nickname Walter “The Moth” and suspect he is a criminal. He worked with their mother as a “firewatcher” during the war, and the siblings surmise that the two were involved in covert activities. Nathaniel later realizes that the term “firewatcher” is a euphemism for an intelligence operative who sends and receives covert signals. 

Nathaniel and Rachel are miserable in boarding school and convince The Moth to re-enroll them as day students and let them live at home in Ruvigny Gardens. The Moth’s eclectic associates frequent their home, including former boxer and greyhound smuggler the Pimlico Darter, the ethnographer Olive Lawrence, the beekeeper Mr. Florence, the fashion designer Citronella, the Forger of Letchworth, and the quiet Arthur McCash, ostensibly a young scholar of French and agronomy.

Nathaniel works at the Criterion Restaurant, where The Moth is employed, and later joins The Darter on a mussel boat smuggling race dogs on the Thames. On other evenings, they transport cargo to and from Waltham Abbey, a former gunpowder mill. Nathaniel and Rachel think The Darter, whose real name is Norman Marshall, is also a criminal who fixes dog races by doping the greyhounds. To Nathaniel’s surprise, The Darter gently treats Rachel when she has an epileptic seizure and teaches Nathaniel how to help her recover. Nathaniel bonds with The Darter, a charismatic man who sings love songs and teaches him how to navigate their secret transport routes.

Nathaniel begins dating a co-worker who goes by the pseudonym Agnes Street. The two spend their evenings sneaking into vacant real estate listings, and they soon and become lovers. Agnes’s name refers to the street name of one of the properties. Nathaniel keeps his home life a secret despite Agnes’s entreaties to meet his family. When Agnes feels that Nathaniel is embarrassed of her working-class background, he introduces The Darter as his father. Charmed by The Darter’s vitality, Agnes joins them at the dog races and later accompanies them on their barge journeys.

A few months after their parents’ departure, Rachel discovers her mother’s packed trunk in the basement. The Moth informs the siblings that their mother, Rose, never joined their father in Singapore, and he has no information on her whereabouts. After a year, neither parent returns. Nathaniel is followed and later accosted by two strangers but assumes they were random thieves. Arthur McCash takes down the details of Nathaniel’s encounter and tells him that his mother is safe, but he cannot reveal her location.

One night, the Moth, Nathaniel, and Rachel are attacked by the men who followed Nathaniel. Arthur McCash, the Darter, and their team thwart the attempted abduction, but The Moth is killed. As soon as the children are safe, Nathaniel briefly meets his mother and learns that she had accepted a mission under the promise that her children would be protected. Rachel refuses to leave The Darter’s side and blames her mother for the Moth’s death. Rose returns to her assignment, and the siblings are swiftly sent to different boarding schools far from London.

The novel shifts to 1959, when Nathaniel takes a job in the Foreign Office archives a decade after his mother’s death. His task is to censor wartime records to obscure British wrongdoing, a project called “The Silent Correction.” Nathaniel accepts the job to research his mother’s double identity and uncover what she did during her absence. He breaks into confidential records and discovers that Rose, under the codename Viola, was a high-level agent in signals intelligence. She had been recruited years earlier by an older childhood friend and mentor, Marsh Felon, with whom she had a brief affair. During their mission in Italy, Rose provided Yugoslav Partisans with classified information that led to the foibe massacres. A young woman, whose family was murdered by the partisans, tracked down Rose in her childhood home and killed her.

Nathaniel recalls his last visit with his mother before her death. After her mission, Rose returned to her childhood home in the Saints, an area in Suffolk. Nathaniel lived with her during his university holidays while Rachel remained estranged from her family. He befriended a kind and trustworthy neighbor, Sam Malakite, and worked in his vegetable fields. Rose answered few of her son’s questions and maintained that silence was a necessity. A few months later, Rose was shot to death in her greenhouse. Malakite discreetly reported the incident to intelligence as Rose had instructed him, and agents scrubbed the evidence of her murder. Nathaniel returned from school to attend his mother’s funeral, but Rachel refused.

As adults, the siblings have a strained relationship. In a rare meeting, Rachel introduces Nathaniel to her son, Walter, named after The Moth. Nathaniel finds The Darter’s dossier in the archival records and learns that he transported explosives for the government. Nathaniel finds his address and visits him. Now married with a daughter, The Darter is reserved and uninterested in reminiscing about the past. Disappointed by the visit, Nathaniel later realizes from a framed embroidery in The Darter’s home that he ended up marrying Agnes, whose real name is Sophie. She was pregnant when Nathaniel disappeared, and Nathaniel is likely their daughter’s biological father.

Nathaniel moves to the Saints and purchases the Malakites’ home. He spends his evenings in their walled garden with his pet greyhound and thinks about the people from his surreal youth. The fragments of their stories will remain incomplete yet formative, and he wonders if he has caused any damage to others. The novel ends with his memory of the last time he was in his mother’s house. He had washed and ironed her clothes, hung them in her cupboard, and left the house for the final time.