The Tiger Claw
The story immediately intrigued Baldwin, inspiring her to travel to Europe, seek out the places where Noor lived, interview the people who knew her and discover more about the enigmatic woman. The Giller Prize finalist The Tiger Claw — Baldwin’s follow-up novel to her award-winning What The Body Remembers — was born from the silences, conflicting stories and significant gaps she discovered along the way.
As the novel begins, we’re thrown into a bleak German prison cell with Noor, where she is shackled hand and foot and freezing from the winter’s cold. It is December 1943, the turning point in the war raging in Europe. Noor’s captor, Herr Vogel, allows her onionskin paper on which he directs her to write children’s stories. She does so, but also secretly writes letters to someone she addresses as “ma petite,” the spirit of the child she had conceived with Armand Rivkin, a French Jewish musician and the love of her life. Although she must keep the letters hidden from her captor, it is through these words to her unborn child, alternating with a thrilling third-person narrative, that we learn Noor’s courageous and heartbreaking story.
Noor’s mother is an American from Boston who married a Sufi musician and teacher from India. Growing up in France, Noor is extremely close with her liberal Muslim father, but when he dies, Noor’s conservative uncle Tajuddin and her brother Kabir govern the family.
Uncle Tajuddin and Kabir disapprove of Noor’s love for Armand, and as the men of the family in 1930s France, they have the legal right to stop her engagement. Noor is faced then with the choice between defying her family and turning against her heart. She stops seeing Armand, but is devastated and lonely. Once the war begins, Noor’s family heads to England while Armand’s family stays.
When Germany invades France, Noor despairs of ever seeing Armand again, until Kabir unwittingly introduces her to his new friend who is recruiting bilingual women for the resistance. Noor is offered training, and she accepts. She will help defeat the Germans, but her true purpose will be to find and reunite with Armand.
As a resistance agent, Noor trains to be a radio operator, taking on a second identity — Nora Baker — one of many names she will eventually assume. When she arrives in France, she plays Anne-Marie Régnier — a woman caring for her sick aunt — and to other spies in her resistance network, she is known as “Madeleine.”
She has secret rendezvous with other agents, transmits messages from various safe houses, and risks capture at every turn. She rents an apartment across the street from Drancy, the concentration camp where she knows Armand is being held. At great peril, she sends him a message — the tiger claw pendant she always wears for luck and courage.
Noor must wade her way through oppression and hypocrisy from all sides: h her beloved Armand could be killed by the Germans at any time; her French and British colleagues fight the occupation of France while Britain still occupies India; she learns of dark family secrets; and, one by one, members of the spy network are being ratted out by a double agent. Betrayal can come from anyone.
We know from the beginning that Noor will end up imprisoned, but who betrays her? Will she ever be released? Will Kabir find her? Will she and Armand be reunited? Baldwin paces the story like a nail-biting thriller, revealing only a little bit at a time.
The Tiger Claw is packed with complex characters riding the line between good and evil. In the end, it is the reader who must be the judge, and decide where he or she stands.
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.
WW2 from a different POV
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.
Profound WWII Thriller - A Real Page Turner
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.
Description
Shauna Singh Baldwin first heard of the mysterious story of Noor Inayat Khan (codename Madeleine) at The Safe House, an espionage-themed restaurant in Milwaukee. A former Dutch spy told her of the brave and beautiful Indo-American woman who left her family in London, England to become a spy in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War.The story immediately intrigued Baldwin, inspiring her to travel to Europe, seek out the places where Noor lived, interview the people who knew her and discover more about the enigmatic woman. The Giller Prize finalist The Tiger Claw — Baldwin’s follow-up novel to her award-winning What The Body Remembers — was born from the silences, conflicting stories and significant gaps she discovered along the way.
As the novel begins, we’re thrown into a bleak German prison cell with Noor, where she is shackled hand and foot and freezing from the winter’s cold. It is December 1943, the turning point in the war raging in Europe. Noor’s captor, Herr Vogel, allows her onionskin paper on which he directs her to write children’s stories. She does so, but also secretly writes letters to someone she addresses as “ma petite,” the spirit of the child she had conceived with Armand Rivkin, a French Jewish musician and the love of her life. Although she must keep the letters hidden from her captor, it is through these words to her unborn child, alternating with a thrilling third-person narrative, that we learn Noor’s courageous and heartbreaking story.
Noor’s mother is an American from Boston who married a Sufi musician and teacher from India. Growing up in France, Noor is extremely close with her liberal Muslim father, but when he dies, Noor’s conservative uncle Tajuddin and her brother Kabir govern the family.
Uncle Tajuddin and Kabir disapprove of Noor’s love for Armand, and as the men of the family in 1930s France, they have the legal right to stop her engagement. Noor is faced then with the choice between defying her family and turning against her heart. She stops seeing Armand, but is devastated and lonely. Once the war begins, Noor’s family heads to England while Armand’s family stays.
When Germany invades France, Noor despairs of ever seeing Armand again, until Kabir unwittingly introduces her to his new friend who is recruiting bilingual women for the resistance. Noor is offered training, and she accepts. She will help defeat the Germans, but her true purpose will be to find and reunite with Armand.
As a resistance agent, Noor trains to be a radio operator, taking on a second identity — Nora Baker — one of many names she will eventually assume. When she arrives in France, she plays Anne-Marie Régnier — a woman caring for her sick aunt — and to other spies in her resistance network, she is known as “Madeleine.”
She has secret rendezvous with other agents, transmits messages from various safe houses, and risks capture at every turn. She rents an apartment across the street from Drancy, the concentration camp where she knows Armand is being held. At great peril, she sends him a message — the tiger claw pendant she always wears for luck and courage.
Noor must wade her way through oppression and hypocrisy from all sides: h her beloved Armand could be killed by the Germans at any time; her French and British colleagues fight the occupation of France while Britain still occupies India; she learns of dark family secrets; and, one by one, members of the spy network are being ratted out by a double agent. Betrayal can come from anyone.
We know from the beginning that Noor will end up imprisoned, but who betrays her? Will she ever be released? Will Kabir find her? Will she and Armand be reunited? Baldwin paces the story like a nail-biting thriller, revealing only a little bit at a time.
The Tiger Claw is packed with complex characters riding the line between good and evil. In the end, it is the reader who must be the judge, and decide where he or she stands.
Customer Reviews
Second Favorite Baldwin NovelIf 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.
WW2 from a different POV
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.
Profound WWII Thriller - A Real Page Turner
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.
