Tiger is a bewitching novel that brings together three humans and a tiger in the wilds of Siberia.
Frieda is a primatologist, sensitively attuned to her research. When a terrible attack shatters her world, she becomes familiar with violence and competition. It is in her new role as a zookeeper that these brutal attributes will be sharpened. And here that she confronts her new ward: an untamed Siberian tiger.
The forest that the cub came from is home to humans on the very edge of wilderness. Tomas, a Russian conservationist, fears that the natural order has toppled. The King tiger has been killed by poachers, and a spectacular tigress now patrols his vast territory as her own.
In the perilous, freezing winter, when all living things compete ruthlessly for survival, her path crosses with a mother and daughter who take an unthinkable risk. Vengeance must follow; and in the terrible clash between human and tiger, the cub will be captured.
When Frieda learns of her cub's past, it brings with it the chance for freedom. Faced with the forces of nature and savage femininity, Frieda must trust to her instinct and, like the tiger, find a way to live in the world.
A sweeping story of survival and redeeming love, Tiger plunges the reader into one of the world's last surviving wildernesses with blistering authenticity. Readers of Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves and Eowyn Ivey's The Bright Edge of the World will love this magnificent second novel by Polly Clark, the prizewinning author of Larchfield.
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[As he sang, Dmitry knotted the snare rope tight around the tree base]***
(@riverrunbooks, 2 May 2019, 432 pages, paperback, copy from @AmazonUK via Amazon Vine)
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I read 90% of this amazing book in a couple of hours because I couldn't stand to turn away from the pages. This is one of the best books I've read in ages. It stunned me. Clark is one of my favourite poets but I had no idea she wrote fiction as well. Tiger is her second novel. I loved it so much I've bought her debut Larchfield which I can't wait to read. This book is three interconnected stories. Frieda studies primates but loses her job and finds a new career working in a zoo and unexpectedly thrust into the role as keeper for their new female Siberian tiger. Frieda's experiences in the zoo and with the tiger change her life. Linked to her story is that of Tomas, a Russian conservationist who offers the cubs of Frieda's tiger a new home and Edit, an innocent woman who pays the price for underestimating the power of tigers. I loved the way the three stories eventually connect but Frieda's was my favourite.
