Prizes and Awards:
Giller
Prize Shortlist 2004
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Product Details
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Product Description
Review
“Baldwin’s luminous prose captures the reader’s attention. . . . [She] immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the Vichy era, replete with undercurrents of terror and prejudice. . . . Readers, especially those interested in history and politics, will be intrigued by this gripping, richly textured novel penned by a consummate storyteller.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
“Baldwin has succeeded in crafting yet another indelible story based in fact.”
—The Edmonton Journal
“The Tiger Claw brilliantly reveals the shifting sands of allegiance in times of war and the duplicity required for survival when all who are operating underground are interdependent but no one can be trusted fully.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“The Tiger Claw is a brilliant novel, a harrowing story of espionage and love, of loyalty and betrayal in the treacherous world of WWII Europe. Shauna Singh Baldwin has an astonishing ability to paint a very large canvas with amazing detail. You are there. ‘Impressive’ hardly even begins to describe it: masterful. I could not put it down. A stunning achievement, but most of all, important.”
—Sandra Gulland
“A deeply felt, richly evocative novel that resurrects and reinvents a remarkable life, The Tiger Claw tells an affecting story of love and loss amidst the turbulence of war and human dislocation. It confirms Shauna Singh Baldwin as a major literary voice that transcends the borders that divide human experience.”
—Shashi Tharoor
“The Tiger Claw is a fascinating story of moral complexity, inner conflict and exile, a magnificent portrait of a very courageous woman, Noor Inayat Khan, the legendary French Resistance fighter, whose divided conscience is reflected in the drama of Nazi-occupied France and British-occupied India. That Noor strikes us a modern figure of heroism and doubt is because of the compelling vision of Shauna Singh Baldwin.”
—Marie-Claire Blais
Praise for What the Body Remembers:
“A stunning first novel. Intensely atmospheric — an artistic triumph.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An impressive achievement. . .rich, fascinating, epic. . . An original, extremely readable book that dramatizes the plight of Indian women with great sympathy and love.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“A captivating jewel of a novel by a seasoned and sophisticated writer. . . Beyond being a compelling tale of individuals, What the Body Remembers offers a gimlet-eyed view of a pluralistic society’s disintegration into factionalism and anarchy.”
—The Washington Post
—Winnipeg Free Press
“Baldwin has succeeded in crafting yet another indelible story based in fact.”
—The Edmonton Journal
“The Tiger Claw brilliantly reveals the shifting sands of allegiance in times of war and the duplicity required for survival when all who are operating underground are interdependent but no one can be trusted fully.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“The Tiger Claw is a brilliant novel, a harrowing story of espionage and love, of loyalty and betrayal in the treacherous world of WWII Europe. Shauna Singh Baldwin has an astonishing ability to paint a very large canvas with amazing detail. You are there. ‘Impressive’ hardly even begins to describe it: masterful. I could not put it down. A stunning achievement, but most of all, important.”
—Sandra Gulland
“A deeply felt, richly evocative novel that resurrects and reinvents a remarkable life, The Tiger Claw tells an affecting story of love and loss amidst the turbulence of war and human dislocation. It confirms Shauna Singh Baldwin as a major literary voice that transcends the borders that divide human experience.”
—Shashi Tharoor
“The Tiger Claw is a fascinating story of moral complexity, inner conflict and exile, a magnificent portrait of a very courageous woman, Noor Inayat Khan, the legendary French Resistance fighter, whose divided conscience is reflected in the drama of Nazi-occupied France and British-occupied India. That Noor strikes us a modern figure of heroism and doubt is because of the compelling vision of Shauna Singh Baldwin.”
—Marie-Claire Blais
Praise for What the Body Remembers:
“A stunning first novel. Intensely atmospheric — an artistic triumph.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An impressive achievement. . .rich, fascinating, epic. . . An original, extremely readable book that dramatizes the plight of Indian women with great sympathy and love.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)
“A captivating jewel of a novel by a seasoned and sophisticated writer. . . Beyond being a compelling tale of individuals, What the Body Remembers offers a gimlet-eyed view of a pluralistic society’s disintegration into factionalism and anarchy.”
—The Washington Post
Book Description
From the author of What the Body Remembers, an extraordinary story of love and espionage, cultural tension and displacement, inspired by the life of Noor Inayat Khan (code name “Madeleine”), who worked against the Occupation after the Nazi invasion of France.
When Noor Khan’s father, a teacher of mystical Sufism, dies, Noor is forced to bow, along with her mother, sister and brother, to her uncle’s religious literalism and ideas on feminine propriety. While at the Sorbonne, Noor falls in love with Armand, a Jewish musician. Though her uncle forbids her to see him, they continue meeting in secret.
When the Germans invade in 1940, Armand persuades Noor to leave him for her own safety. She flees with her family to England, but volunteers to serve in a special intelligence agency. She is trained as a radio operator for the group that, in Churchill’s words, will “set Europe ablaze” with acts of sabotage. She is then sent back to Occupied France. Unwavering courage is what Noor requires for her assignment and her deeply personal mission — to re-unite with Armand. As her talisman, she carries her grandmother’s gift, an heirloom tiger claw encased in gold.
The novel opens in December 1943. Noor has been imprisoned. She begins writing in secret, tracing the events that led to her capture. When Germany surrenders in 1945, her brother Kabir begins his search through the chaos of Europe’s Displaced Persons camps to find her.
In its portrayal of intolerance, The Tiger Claw eerily mirrors our own times, and progresses with moments of great beauty and white-knuckle tension towards a moving and astonishing denouement.
Excerpt from The Tiger Claw
December moved in, taking up residence with Noor in her cell, and freezing the radiator.
Cold coiled in the bowl of her pelvis, turning shiver to quake as she lay beneath her blanket on the cot. Above, snow drifted against the glass and bars. Shreds of thoughts, speculations, obsessions … some glue still held her fragments together.
The flap door clanged down.
“Herr Vogel…”
The rest, in rapid German, was senseless.
Silly hope reared inside; she reined it in.
The guard placed something on the thick, jutting tray, something invisible in the dingy half-light. Soup probably. She didn’t care.
She heard a clunk and a small swish.
Yes, she did.
When Noor Khan’s father, a teacher of mystical Sufism, dies, Noor is forced to bow, along with her mother, sister and brother, to her uncle’s religious literalism and ideas on feminine propriety. While at the Sorbonne, Noor falls in love with Armand, a Jewish musician. Though her uncle forbids her to see him, they continue meeting in secret.
When the Germans invade in 1940, Armand persuades Noor to leave him for her own safety. She flees with her family to England, but volunteers to serve in a special intelligence agency. She is trained as a radio operator for the group that, in Churchill’s words, will “set Europe ablaze” with acts of sabotage. She is then sent back to Occupied France. Unwavering courage is what Noor requires for her assignment and her deeply personal mission — to re-unite with Armand. As her talisman, she carries her grandmother’s gift, an heirloom tiger claw encased in gold.
The novel opens in December 1943. Noor has been imprisoned. She begins writing in secret, tracing the events that led to her capture. When Germany surrenders in 1945, her brother Kabir begins his search through the chaos of Europe’s Displaced Persons camps to find her.
In its portrayal of intolerance, The Tiger Claw eerily mirrors our own times, and progresses with moments of great beauty and white-knuckle tension towards a moving and astonishing denouement.
Excerpt from The Tiger Claw
December moved in, taking up residence with Noor in her cell, and freezing the radiator.
Cold coiled in the bowl of her pelvis, turning shiver to quake as she lay beneath her blanket on the cot. Above, snow drifted against the glass and bars. Shreds of thoughts, speculations, obsessions … some glue still held her fragments together.
The flap door clanged down.
“Herr Vogel…”
The rest, in rapid German, was senseless.
Silly hope reared inside; she reined it in.
The guard placed something on the thick, jutting tray, something invisible in the dingy half-light. Soup probably. She didn’t care.
She heard a clunk and a small swish.
Yes, she did.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting and Entertaining,
By
This review is from: The Tiger Claw (Hardcover)
Noor Khan parented by a teacher of mystical Sufism falls in love with Armand Rivkin a Jewish pianist but is forbidden to see him in the name of religion and propriety. When the Germans invade France in 1940, Noor and her family are forced to flee to England for their safety. Once there, due to Noors background she is recruited by the special intelligence agency and is sent to France to contribute to the underground resistance movement. With this mission she hopes to reunite with her true love'..This is the story of Noor Khan code name Madeleine who worked against the Nazi regime during the Occupation of France. It is a war story, a quest for love, a tale of espionage and resistance. The main character is Noor a woman of mixed parentage that had no roots in England, was not readily accepted in France or India and due to her language skills made her the perfect spy material. I find this novel excellent, the prose capture the essence of the time and immerses you immediately in the atmosphere of the Vichy era complete with its terror and prejudice. Ms Balwin tells a highly riveting and entertaining story, I thoroughly enjoy it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Profound WWII Thriller - A Real Page Turner,
By PJ_RICE (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tiger Claw (Hardcover)
Often reading authors unknown to me, I'll go through several books before one this good comes along. It kept me up late for several days. History seamlessly blends with fiction as Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian Muslim woman who grew up in France, finds herself back in German-occupied France, spying for Britain. If that's not complicated enough, she's in love with Armand, a Jewish native of France who's been imprisoned by the Nazis. As Noor precariously sends her radio messages to London and meets a network of other British agents, she desparately tries to get closer to Armand. The book offers page after page of breath-holding tension as the Nazi tentacles slowly close around the British network - is there a traitor feeding their names to the Gestapo? Apart from the excitement, other themes emerge. Noor reflects upon the relationship between occupiers and the occupied, as between the British and her parent's India. The characters are richly developed and on many occasions the reader shares their pain - and their hope- deeply. On one level the book is a very entertaining thriller; on another it is extremely insightful, posing very profound questions about human and societal relationships. Despite the at times gut-wrenching pathos, this books is a fabulous and very satisfying read and I highly recommend it to lovers of history, thrillers, espionage and fiction in general.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Profound WWII Thriller - A Real Page Turner,
By PJ_RICE - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Tiger Claw (Hardcover)
Often reading authors unknown to me, I'll go through several books before one this good comes along. It kept me up late for several days. History seamlessly blends with fiction as Noor Inayat Khan, an Indian Muslim woman who grew up in France, finds herself back in German-occupied France, spying for Britain. If that's not complicated enough, she's in love with Armand, a Jewish native of France who's been imprisoned by the Nazis. As Noor precariously sends her radio messages to London and meets a network of other British agents, she desparately tries to get closer to Armand. The book offers page after page of breath-holding tension as the Nazi tentacles slowly close around the British network - is there a traitor feeding their names to the Gestapo? Apart from the excitement, other themes emerge. Noor reflects upon the relationship between occupiers and the occupied, as between the British and her parent's India. The characters are richly developed and on many occasions the reader shares their pain - and their hope- deeply. On one level the book is a very entertaining thriller; on another it is extremely insightful, posing very profound questions about human and societal relationships. Despite the at times gut-wrenching pathos, this books is a fabulous and very satisfying read and I highly recommend it to lovers of history, thrillers, espionage and fiction in general.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
WW2 from a different POV,
By LlanosD "writer49" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Tiger Claw (Paperback)
This novel brings up so many new aspects of the WW2 experience. The perspective of Indians and ethnic Brits, the issue of interracial relationships during the war, the political implications of the use and sacrifice of agents. I felt that Baldwin's descriptions made me feel I was right there on the scene. The structure of the book kept my emotions at high pitch. Not an easy novel to read, I had to at times, put it down for several days to get away from the incidents described. The scenes of Noor in jail were heart breaking. And I'm so pleased that the author resisted the Hollywood ending to the story. I read this book a year ago and it's still with me. Fabulous read.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Second Favorite Baldwin Novel,
By P. Kapur "PK" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Tiger Claw (Paperback)
If you like this book, you'll LOVE Baldwin's earlier novel, "What the Body Remembers".The Tiger Claw has the author's characteristic emotional sensitivity and poise, and is a very satisfying read. If it were the first Baldwin novel I was reading, I would probably give it more than 3 stars. However, her earlier work - What the Body Remembers is just SO much better, that I couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed with this book. |
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