Torn apart
MJ Stone
|
The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin (Knopf Canada), 592 pp
|
Giller nominee Singh Baldwin animates a true tale of love lost
Sometimes stories don't reveal themselves to authors until the timing is right. Just months before September 11, 2001, when Giller Prize nominee Shauna Singh Baldwin first heard the harrowing true story of Noor Inayat Khan, The Tiger Claw was born. The historical fiction about Khan - a.k.a. Jeanne-Marie Reneir, a Muslim woman who fought with Resistance fighters in France during the Second World War - strikes a resonant chord in today's war-torn world.Noor Khan, daughter of a Sufi professor and spiritual attaché to the Russian Imperial court, was born in the Kremlin on January 1, 1914. Her mother was an American convert to Islam, and when she was a child, her family moved to Paris where her father, a spiritual man of noted tolerance, lectured on the Sufi way to enlightenment.
Following her father's death, her less than tolerant uncle assumed the role of family patriarch. Mortified that his niece had fallen in love with Armand Rivkin, a Jewish pianist, Noor's uncle attempted to destroy their love.
Defying her family, Noor and Armand continued their clandestine intimacy. The bond between them was so powerful that even the Nazis couldn't squash their enduring passion. Following the German invasion of France, the Khan family escaped to England, but Noor quickly grew desperate when she discovered that Rivkin and his mother were unable to flee.
Haunted by the feeling that she has abandoned love, Noor joined a British espionage cell and volunteered for an assignment that brought her back
to France.Noor Khan was a terrorist in the eyes of the Nazis and a heroic symbol of French resistance; her story is a 21st century allegory that speaks to the root causes of our own divisive times.
Shauna Singh Baldwin does a fine job of breathing imaginary life into the historical fiction. Her virtuosity is especially revealed when she articulates the feelings inside Khan's broken heart:
"With Armand, I was unconscious of being woman, unconscious of him as man. With him I could act, and he had liberty to feel. I loved him for what he confided in me, the glimpse of his forbidden inner core, for the things I could say only to him when he shared my body and was enclosed by me. In those moments there was nothing impermeable between us, no trivial differences to separate us."
Although the Giller Prize went to Alice Munro, rest assured that The Tiger's Claw is destined to win your heart.
A lot of us when hearing about a good book ask if there is a movie to it. We have lost the love to read and instead want to watch tv. Well this book can change your mind. I loved this book and was really swept up in the drama.
It has all the great elements of a novel; war and love. With what is going on in present day, this novel is very relevant and can touch a cord in all of us. I wish more novels had as much passion.
Singh Baldwin may not be the first to tell the story of French Resistance spy Noor Inayat Khan but she does a great job none the less.
|
|
Selena Lobo
|
|
|
|
| For sure it is destined to win my heart. |
|
What a wonderful story and I must say the review of the story is very nice as well. In a world where there is so much mix marriages of different cultures it is nice to read of peoples experiences. I believe that the wars of years ago which seemed so cruel then , today theydon't sound as harsh. For in the middle of these wars we read about love stories and struggles one made to defend and protect a love one. Todays wars I believe will leave no memories behind them. the wars of today will destroy everything in sight kill every last soul on earth. There will be no story to tell or to be heard. It is nice to see the recovery of broken hearts and a purpose to all the pain if at least to tell the story to those who will listen.I will look for this book because the subject of the stroy has already touched my heart.
|
|
Maria Cecillia Silva
|
|
|
|
