Set in 1945, The English Patient explores the lives of four very disparate wartorn people, a young woman and three men, who take refuge in a damaged villa north of Florence as the war retreats around them. In an upstairs room lies the badly burned English patient, alive but unable to move. His extraordinary adventures and turbulent love affair in the North African desert before the war provide the focus around which the vivid tales of his companions revolve. His very presence will for ever change the destiny of those around him... This is a breathtaking story of love and passion that twists through London's Blitz and the intricacies of bomb disposal, through the mysterious, often dangerous world of desert exploration. Beautifully read by internationally acclaimed actor Ralph Fiennes who also starred in the multi Oscar winning film by Anthony Minghella.