Moon Tiger - Softcover

Lively, Penelope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060972009 ISBN 13: 9780060972004

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1989

Synopsis

Claudia Hampton, writer of best-selling popular history books, lies in a London hospital bed and looks back on her own life, including an unforgettable love affair

About this title

About the Author:

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

Review:

At the age of seventy-six and on her deathbed, Claudia Hampton decides to write "The history of the world as selected by Claudia: fact and fiction, myth and evidence, images and documents." It's a history seen through a kaleidoscope: "Chronology irritates me. There is no chronology inside my head. I am composed of a myriad of Claudias who spin and mix and part like sparks of sunlight on water." We meet Claudia, a woman always willing to share her opinions, who has admirers and enemies, loves and losses; fatherless Claudia, who grew up almost too close to her brother and best friend Gordon; Claudia, who could never really be a mother to her child, Lisa, or marry Jasper, Lisa's father. And Claudia certainly wouldn't tell anyone about Tom; the one love of her life; he's her own private memory, how could they understand? An independent and competitive woman, Claudia worked as a reporter in Egypt during World War II and met Tom near the front. Their brief but intense love affair affirms the power and thrill of falling in love. As people visit Claudia on her deathbed, they shake and turn the kaleidoscope, changing speed, movement, and voice, to reveal, in their own words, themselves and Claudia's impact on their world. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0060972009
• ISBN 13: 9780060972004
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224