Warlight

London in 1945 is the setting for Michael Ondaatje's novel. Nathaniel, fourteen, and his elder sister Rachel remain behind when their parents leave for Singapore, in the care of their lodger, a mysterious figure called The Moth, whom they suspect of being a criminal. As they come to know his eccentric friends, men and women linked by unspecified wartime service who seem intent on protecting and schooling them, the siblings grow more convinced of their suspicion and less bothered by it. A dozen years later, Nathaniel narrates his attempt to understand that time. The novel was longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize.

Barack Obama picked it for his best of 2018 list, posted on Facebook.