Moon Tiger is one of those unclassifiable reads that stay with you for a long time. Cited by many writers (Anne Tyler, Taiye Selassi, etc.) as a founding spark in their work, Penelope Lively’s novel explores the fate of a woman, Claudia Hampton, a heroine who is relentlessly committed to the path of emancipation. Claudia is over 70 years old at the beginning of Moon Tiger. She is lying in a hospital bed in London, her strength leaving her body but not her mind, which wanders and leads the dance with power. Claudia sets out to rewrite world history in her own way, no more and no less. At her side, we journey through youth, incest, trauma, World War II, love affairs, and the daily struggles a woman must endure to have the right to be fully herself.
Penelope Lively’s wonderful and precise writing brings a charismatic character to life. Already published in France by Stock’s “La Cosmopolite”, the novel had fallen into oblivion in France. Éditions de L’Olivier now offers a new translation by Paule Guivarch.
