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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12682 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

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.

Customer Reviews

Really Incredible
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.

QUITE SIMPLY, THE BEST....
It's been a while since I re-read 'Moon Tiger' and this new edition with the introduction by Anthony Thwaite, interested me and made me want to read it again.

It is quite simply the best book I've ever read.
Through the mind and voice of Claudia Hampton, who says that she is writing a history of the world- 'the whole triumphant unstoppable chute' we are introduced to a history of her world, and of the world of her beloved brother, Gordon, of her mother, who 'retired from history', of her lover and of their daughter, and then most of all, of Tom, the man she loved above all.

As she begins to tell of her experiences as she lies dying in hospital, she explores the power of words and of language - she a famous journalist who went to Egypt during the war to report home on the course of events.
It is there that she sees the Moon Tiger, 'a green coil that slowly burns all night' which become the title of the book and a recurring metaphor.

As her own Moon Tiger burns down she remembers the faces and the characters whom she met.
She is not always liked by us the readers, especially when she tells of the growing up of her daughter,Lisa. Claudia was a self-obsessed, narcissistic woman all her life and there was no room in her life for a baby daughter, so Lisa was looked after by her grandmothers.
Some of her actions in her formative years may shock us, but this is Claudia who went her way regardless of opposition and opprobrium, and is quite prepared to accept blame and criticism.

We are also given the points of view of the characters whom she discusses, so the novel is not one-sided with one authorial voice or the views of only one character.

Claudia faces her death with the courage and the eccentricity which we come to expect from her and we admire her for her attitude.
She tells us of the man, Tom Southern , whom she loved so much that it takes some time before she allows herself to indulge in memories of their time together. Theirs was a great love...

This is a fine book, winner of the Booker Prize and an example of the best writing of one of our best novelists.
Do buy it - it is one of the greats.