Isolated by World War Two in a remote Italian villa, two men and a woman tend the mysterious 'English Patient'.   An airman of unknown origin, he barely clings to life as around him his companions nurse their own private sorrows.   Contrasted with the brutality of the war and the hideousness of the airman's injuries are descriptive passages of compelling beauty, as the 'English Patient' follows the path of Herodotus through the North African desert.   Slowly, Ondaatje reveals his characters, along with the tragedies which have afflicted them and led them finally to this place.