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Product Description
Claudia Hampton, a beautiful, famous writer, lies dying in hospital. But, as the nurses tend to her with quiet condescension, she is plotting her greatest work: 'a history of the world ... and in the process, my own'. Gradually she re-creates the rich mosaic of her life and times, conjuring up those she has known. There is Gordon, her adored brother; Jasper, the charming, untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool, conventional daughter; and Tom, her one great love, both found and lost in wartime Egypt. Penelope Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel weaves an exquisite mesh of memories, flashbacks and shifting voices, in a haunting story of loss and desire.
About the Author
Penelope Lively was born in Cairo in 1933. 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 novels include Passing On, City of the Mind, Cleopatra's Sister and Heat Wave, and many are published by Penguin.
Anthony Thwaite has published fourteen books of poems, including most recently A Move in the Weather (2003). He has taught in universities throughout the world, worked as a BBC radio producer, and is a former editor of The Listener and New Statesman. He is married to the biographer Ann Thwaite and in 1990 he received an OBE for services to poetry.
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First Sentence
'I'm writing a history of the world,' she says. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
'I'm writing a history of the world,' she says. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Moon Tiger is the brand name of the mosquito repellent which slowly burns throughout the balmy nights of Claudia Hampton's brief affair in Egypt with a young tank commander, Tom Southern. And this is the emotional core of Penelope Lively's award winning novel as her protagonist lies dying in a London hospital bed. Once a beautiful, intelligent, unconventional historian & former war correspondent, fate helps turn Claudia into an egoistic person and callous mother. For this book is not only about love, but about war and the way it transforms whoever you were, into whoever you've become - and how you are individually viewed by others.
Now a cantankerous old patient with failing consciousness, Claudia Hampton's mind moves randomly across time and historical events to reconstruct the strata of her life. The author presents her story in an unusual way, which I found a little difficult to follow at first. Some of the narrative is told in the past tense and some in the present tense, and it skips from 1st to 3rd person; it also alternates narrative voices. I think this 200 page novel benefits a second reading; "I'm writing a history of the world," she says. And the hands of the nurse are arrested for a moment...... "Well, my goodness" ...... "Upsy a bit dear, there's a good girl - then we'll get you a nice cup of tea."
This moving, poignant story that captures the last thoughts of a dying woman is a compelling read and a well deserved Booker Prize winner. I always enjoy Penelope Lively's understated way of writing, but for some unknown reason I have only just read 'Moon Tiger' over the weekend. I loved it - and this haunting evocation of love and loss must surely be her finest work.
Now a cantankerous old patient with failing consciousness, Claudia Hampton's mind moves randomly across time and historical events to reconstruct the strata of her life. The author presents her story in an unusual way, which I found a little difficult to follow at first. Some of the narrative is told in the past tense and some in the present tense, and it skips from 1st to 3rd person; it also alternates narrative voices. I think this 200 page novel benefits a second reading; "I'm writing a history of the world," she says. And the hands of the nurse are arrested for a moment...... "Well, my goodness" ...... "Upsy a bit dear, there's a good girl - then we'll get you a nice cup of tea."
This moving, poignant story that captures the last thoughts of a dying woman is a compelling read and a well deserved Booker Prize winner. I always enjoy Penelope Lively's understated way of writing, but for some unknown reason I have only just read 'Moon Tiger' over the weekend. I loved it - and this haunting evocation of love and loss must surely be her finest work.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I always loved the cover of this book and got it out of the library with every intention of reading three or four times before I actually did read it. Thank goodness I did, is all I can say!
Claudia's 'kaleidoscopic history' is beautifully recounted by the dying woman, loved and hated by those around her, slipping seamlessly between past and present. Every character feels human and alive, and even though there are aspects of Claudia's story that we know (without being told) pretty much from the outset, you can't help wishing that things would be different. Despite this, I just know that this story would be half as good if any detail was changed. I think the thing that makes it the most poignant is that this is such a vibrant life, and yet the nurse has to ask the doctor 'Was she somebody?' It's as though Claudia has already died, and I felt to a large extent that she had, because the really vital Claudia was left behind with the characters who died before her, and it's just a shadow lying in the hospital bed.
This is a beautiful story of life and love, my favourite book of all time (which is certainly saying something). Try Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier if you like this, I thought there were a few similarities.
Claudia's 'kaleidoscopic history' is beautifully recounted by the dying woman, loved and hated by those around her, slipping seamlessly between past and present. Every character feels human and alive, and even though there are aspects of Claudia's story that we know (without being told) pretty much from the outset, you can't help wishing that things would be different. Despite this, I just know that this story would be half as good if any detail was changed. I think the thing that makes it the most poignant is that this is such a vibrant life, and yet the nurse has to ask the doctor 'Was she somebody?' It's as though Claudia has already died, and I felt to a large extent that she had, because the really vital Claudia was left behind with the characters who died before her, and it's just a shadow lying in the hospital bed.
This is a beautiful story of life and love, my favourite book of all time (which is certainly saying something). Try Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier if you like this, I thought there were a few similarities.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I didn't really expect to like this book, but decided to give it a go on the strength of it having won the Booker Prize. Rarely have my expectations been so strongly proven wrong. I expected from the blurb that it would be depressing (the main character is an elderly woman dying in hospital) - it is not at all. I imagined it would be dull and fragmented - but it is neither.
So how can I describe what Moon Tiger is? It is a truly beautiful written story, the language is just so nicely constructed. Every sentence is exactly as it should be. It evokes a vivid sense of place and time, and also captures something harder to describe - emotions, sensations. I found it utterly absorbing and it is one of those stories that alters your mood and mindset just by reading even a small fragment.
The principal character, a once beautiful, firecely intelligent and very strong minded woman, is never a figure of pity or sorrow even though she is at the end of her life. She is often dislikeable, as she tells her story, yet always fascinating, vivid and very real. The way she eclipses and affects the other characters around her is shown through both her and their recollections. Unlike many books that mix different narrators, in Moon Tiger this never leads to confusion, and always seems to be the right way to tell the story. Likewise the jumping around in time - something which often irritates me in a book - never became confused or annoying.
So all in all, a masterful piece of work. One of those books that you should just read for the simple pleasure of it!
So how can I describe what Moon Tiger is? It is a truly beautiful written story, the language is just so nicely constructed. Every sentence is exactly as it should be. It evokes a vivid sense of place and time, and also captures something harder to describe - emotions, sensations. I found it utterly absorbing and it is one of those stories that alters your mood and mindset just by reading even a small fragment.
The principal character, a once beautiful, firecely intelligent and very strong minded woman, is never a figure of pity or sorrow even though she is at the end of her life. She is often dislikeable, as she tells her story, yet always fascinating, vivid and very real. The way she eclipses and affects the other characters around her is shown through both her and their recollections. Unlike many books that mix different narrators, in Moon Tiger this never leads to confusion, and always seems to be the right way to tell the story. Likewise the jumping around in time - something which often irritates me in a book - never became confused or annoying.
So all in all, a masterful piece of work. One of those books that you should just read for the simple pleasure of it!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
'the history of the world as selected by Claudia: fact and fiction,...
As the elderly Claudia, a historian, lies in hospital, terminally ill, she determines to write a history of the world... Read more
Published 1 month ago by sally tarbox
Life revisited and relived
Time is undoubtedly linear, but our perception of it is not. And for Claudia Hampton, the principal character of Penelope Lively's novel, Moon Tiger, time, manifest as her life, is... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Philip Spires
Booker Prize Winner - Really ?
I was asked to read this by book club, and having read the rave reviews I really looked forward to it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by JAM
A Man Booker Winning Masterpiece
There is, I think, a major problem for anyone wishing to write about `Moon Tiger' and that is how to tell anyone the plot. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Simon Savidge Reads
A modern classic
Not since A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore have I read a book that I know I will read again and again, but Moon Tiger is there, among favourites like Jane Eyre, Great... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Suzie
Bliss......
I have just read this book for the fourth (fifth?) time and I never fail to be astonished at just how good it is. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by Stromata
Certainly a "classic"
Penelope Lively's characters live up to their creator's name - instantly recognisable as living people. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2009 by Ceinwen Roderick
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