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Published Jul 2014
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. After a long career of being shot at, he's about to be retired. The mildly larcenous, backwater island of Mancreu is the ideal place to serve out his time, a former British colony in legal limbo, belching toxic clouds of waste and facing imminent destruction by an international community concerned for their own safety. The perfect place for Lester is also the perfect location for a multinational array of shady businesses. Hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: spy stations, arms dealers, offshore hospitals, money-laundering operations, drug factories and torture centers. None of which should be a problem, since Lester's brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye.
Meanwhile, he befriends a brilliant, Internet-addled street kid with a comic-book fixation who will need a new home when the island dies. When Mancreu's fragile society erupts in violence, Lester must be more than just an observer: he has no choice but to rediscover the man of action he once was, and find out what kind of hero the island - and the boy - will need.
From the award-winning author of Angelmaker and The Gone-Away World, Tigerman is a novel at once deeply heartfelt and headlong thrilling—about parenthood, friendship and secret identities, about heroes of both the super and the everyday kind.
"Starred Review. Adroitly explores the lengths one man will go to save what he's come to love, even in the face of almost-certain failure." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Yet another bravura performance from a writer whose imagination knows no bounds." - Booklist
"Starred Review. A hoot and a half, and then some: hands down, the best island farce since Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle half a century ago." - Kirkus
"Astonishing. Graham Greene would have treasured this book. Nick Harkaway has all the writerly skills to pull it off. His Tigerman lives because of his wit and daring intelligence, and his empathy." - Scotsman
"This mission will move you as powerfully as it will enthral you. 5 stars." - Daily Express
"Extraordinary.The action sequences in Tigerman are some of Harkaway's best. As ever, the writing is economical but lively, revelling in modern idiom." - Literary Review
"Often hilarious but with an undercurrent of dark violence, this is an impressive novel that conceals provocative questions inside an old-school tale of ripping adventure." - SFX magazine
This information about Tigerman was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Clare Cornwell
Nick Harkaway, son of John le Carré, was born in Cornwall in 1972. He studied philosophy, sociology and politics at Clare College, Cambridge, and then worked in the film industry. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Bibliography to Date
Novels
The Gone Away World (2008)
Angelmaker (2012)
Tigerman (2014)
Non fiction
The Blind Giant: How Human Connection Will Redeem the Digital Age (2012)
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
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