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Moon Tiger

by Penelope Lively

Book list Lively's Booker Prize-winning novel, in which an elderly historian reflects on her life and work, rekindles, even in the most jaded reader, awe for the power of words beautifully used and the wisdom earned by passionate observation. [BKL Ap 15 88]

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Library Journal Lively recently won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for this deeply moving, elegantly structured novel. The heroine is Claudia Hampton, an unconventional historian and former war correspondent who lies in a hospital bed dying of cancer. Forced inward, Claudia moves randomly across time and place to reconstruct the strata of her life. But ``most lives have their core, their kernel, the vital centre''; Claudia's is the brief, tragic encounter she had in Egypt during the war with Tom Southern, a British tank officer on leave from battle. Tom's voice, along with those of her brother and daughter, joins Claudia's to shape a narrative that is a complex, intricately composed fugue. This haunting evocation of loss is Lively's finest achievement yet.Laurence Hull, Cannon Memorial Lib., Concord, N.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list Lively was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction, England's most prestigious literary award, for Moon Tiger-a fine, resounding novel that rekindles, even in the most jaded reader, awe for the power of words beautifully used and the wisdom earned by passionate observation. Elderly Claudia Hampton is dying, but she is also writing her last book-a history of the world. Hampton, elegant and sexy when younger, has lived an independent and willful life working as a war correspondent in Egypt during World War II and then as a bold and creative popular historian. She recalls her past in descriptions rich in sensual texture; her relationships are complex and memorable. But it is her sense of the world and each person's place in it that captivates. Her musings illuminate the chameleon qualities of time and the many forms history can take. This novel is a celebration of the vastness and beauty of thought and imagination. DK. [OCLC] 87-23798

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.