The English Patient

With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II.The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, obsessively tends to her last surviving patient. Caravaggio, the thief, tries to reimagine who he is, now that his hands are hopelessly maimed. The Indian sapper Kip searches for hidden bombs in a landscape where nothing is safe but himself. And at the center of his labyrinth lies the English patient, nameless and hideously burned, a man who is both a riddle and a provocation to his companions—and whose memories of suffering, rescue, and betrayal illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.

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Better World Books

Betterworld Impact

As a consumer, your choices reverberate around the world. The global citizens that shop with BetterWorld.com build positive change. With every purchase, a little more funding goes toward literacy, and boy does it add up fast. See below for metrics on on our social, environmental, and economic impact.

The Triple Bottom Line of Better World Books:

Social Impact

* Collected over 11.4 million books through active book drives at over 1600 colleges and universities and collections from over 900 libraries * Raised over $2.75 million for over 80 literacy and education non-profit organizations, including: o More than $1.55 million for Books for Africa o More than $290,000 for Room to Read o More than $335,000 for the National Center for Family Literacy o More than $44,000 for Worldfund o More than $82,000 for the Robinson Community Learning Center o More than $425,000 for additional literacy partners * Raised over $75,000 for the New Orleans Public Library Foundation * Raised more than $1.6 million for libraries and thrift stores nationwide * Contributed more than $1 million for college service clubs who have run book drives * Directly sent more than 920,000 books to Books for Africa, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Feed the Children * Established Better World Books Fund to finance specific shipments through Books for Africa, more information coming soon!

Environmental Impact:

* Saved over 6,450 tons of books from landfills * Reclaimed more than 680,000 pounds of metal shelving from libraries across the United States * 2,376 tons of carbon offset on Betterworld.com sales
Economic Impact

* Created over 160 full-time jobs (with full benefits) and revitalized a dormant packaging plant in an industrial center located in Northern Indiana

SUSTAINABILITY FACTS
Social Responsibility: eConscious MarketTM supports businesses that are committed to staff happiness by ensuring safe working conditions and through fair distribution of profits generated by product sales to all participants throughout the supply chain. Better World Books...
	Supports and pays Living Wage
	Manufacturing facilities guaranteed to be Sweat Shop Free
	Manufacturing facilities guaranteed to be Child Labor Free
	Manufactured in the USA (or "locally")
	Independently-owned business
Community Involvement: eConscious MarketTM supports businesses that actively take part in their community by supporting local suppliers and designers whenever possible. Better World Books...
	Uses local designers
	Supports and/or Sponsors the following Nonprofits:
**The information contained in each vendor's profile has been provided to eConscious MarketTM by the individual vendors. [more info]

Better World Books
Here is the best part: In addition to selling new titles, Better World Books supports book drives and collects used books and textbooks through a network of over 1,600 college campuses and partnerships with nearly 1,000 libraries nationwide.

So far, the company has converted more than 11 million donated books into $4.5 million in funding for literacy and education. In the process, we have also diverted more than 6,000 tons of books from landfills.

Because we believe that most every book has lasting value and the potential to help change the world, we see our job as helping to find new homes for unwanted books. Thus far, we have donated nearly one million books to partner programs around the world. Our four primary literacy partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, and the National Center for Family Literacy. Good company, no doubt.

Every book purchased from Better World Books contributes to individual literacy throughout the world and the promise of a better life. Clearly, we can not do this work without our customers. That's why we are so passionate about trying to offer the best price, selection, customer service, and overall shopping experience.

Thanks for joining us in our mission to create a better world, one book at a time.