With incredible detail, Michael Ondaatje carefully lays out the mysterious story of the childhood of Agnes and Nathaniel. In post WWII London, the adolescents are left by their parents, in the hands of eccentric and possibly nefarious family friends, who take the children on covert nighttime river excursions into the underbelly of post war society.
It is not until a decade later that Nathaniel begins to unravel his mother's secret life during the war, as well as the lives of the characters that spent time at the family home during that time.
Warlight comes from a term used during London blackouts for the dimmed lights of essential vehicles, which plays right into the dark atmosphere Ondaatje creates. A haunting character-driven novel that offers an unusual view of the many underworlds at work during war.