Moon Tiger
Penelope Lively · b. 1933 · England
Why it matters
Dying historian Claudia Hampton reconstructs her own life out of chronological order, its true center a wartime desert love affair that outshines the conventional decades surrounding it. Lively's Booker winner argues memory never really moves in a straight line.
At a glance
historical fictionpsychological novelwar novel
Difficulty 6/10medium pace208 pagesNonlinear, competing-memory structure jumps between decades without warning.
Deep dive
Why a dying historian keeps interrupting her own official biography, and what the coiled mosquito coil in the title has to do with it.
