Awards
Booker Prize winner, 1987
Synopses & Reviews
Penelope Lively won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for this deeply moving, elegantly structured novel. Elderly, uncompromising Claudia Hampton lies in a London hospital bed with memories of life fluttering through her fading consciousness. An author of popular history, Claudia proclaims she's carrying out her last project: a history of the world. This history turns out to be a mosaic of her life, her own story tangled with those of her brother, her lover and father of her daughter, and the center of her life, Tom, her one great love found and lost in war-torn Egypt. Always the independent woman, often with contentious relationships, Claudia's personal history is complex and fascinating. As people visit Claudia, they shake and twist the mosaic, changing speed, movement, and voice, to reveal themselves and Claudia's impact on their world.
Review
"This haunting evocation of loss is Lively's finest achievement yet." Library Journal
Review
"A powerful, moving and beautifully wrought novel about the ways in which lives are molded by personal memory and the collective past." Boston Globe
Review
"It pulls us in; it engages us and saddens us. It is also unexpectedly funny.... It leaves its traces in the air long after you've put it away." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Winner of the coveted Booker Prize, Moon Tiger is 'a novel of exceptional intelligence and depth, by one of England's finest writers.' "Publishers Weekly
Review
"Emotionally, Moon Tiger is kaleidoscopic, deeply satisfying. The all too brief encounter between Claudia and Tom will surely rate as one of the most memorable of contemporary fictional affairs. This is one of the best novels I have ready for years." Telegraph The London Sunday
Synopsis
Winner of the Man Booker Prize and Shortlisted for the Golden Man Booker Prize The elderly Claudia Hampton, a best-selling author of popular history; lies alone in a London hospital bed. Memories of her life still glow in her fading consciousness, but she imagines writing a history of the world. Instead, Moon Tiger is her own history, the life of a strong, independent woman, with its often contentious relations with family and friends. At its center -- forever frozen in time, the still point of her turning world -- is the cruelly truncated affair with Tom, a British tank commander whom Claudia knew as a reporter in Egypt during World War II.
Synopsis
Winner of the Man Booker PrizeThe elderly Claudia Hampton, a best-selling author of popular history; lies alone in a London hospital bed. Memories of her life still glow in her fading consciousness, but she imagines writing a history of the world. Instead, Moon Tiger is her own history, the life of a strong, independent woman, with its often contentious relations with family and friends. At its center forever frozen in time, the still point of her turning world is the cruelly truncated affair with Tom, a British tank commander whom Claudia knew as a reporter in Egypt during World War II.
About the Author
Penelope Lively is the author of over twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Booker Prize-winning novel Moon Tiger and the Whitbread Award-winning novel A Stitch in Time, as well as numerous children's books.