2018 Booker Prize Longlist: Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

This thread is for discussion of Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. No unhidden spoiler comments, pleese.

I just completed Warlight, the first of my 2018 Booker reads. and this one was a fine start. I found it very well written and atmospheric. Some may not enjoy how slowly the story unfolds and ahaa moments come at a snails pace and as no surprise yet I consider it a satisfying read of historical fiction. Ondaatje's message is clear and thought provoking.
As this is my first read, it is, of course, ranked the highest but it's teetering, at that.

Nathaniel tries to make sense of what happened in those years after the war, growing up among strangers who took care of him and his sister when their parents left them.
The first part describes this youth, in the second part (that I enjoyed a lot more) Nathaniel is an adult.
I so much love the way Ondaatje writes. His characters, the atmosphere, the descriptions of landscapes, hotel rooms, European cities. It’s all there, yet somehow it didn’t accumulate to the fantastic novel I expected.