Tigerman

Description

From the highly acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker comes Nick Harkaway's brilliant new novel about ex-colonies, superheroes and paternal love. 'Gloriously exuberant and entertaining.' Guardian 'A funny, moving and thought-provoking tale ... It's brilliant.' Independent on Sunday Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. He's spent a lot of his life being shot at. He has no family, he's nearly forty, burned out and about to be retired. The island of Mancreu is the perfect place for Lester to serve out his time - and the perfect place for shady business, too, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay- listening stations, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester's brief is to turn a blind eye. But Lester has made a friend- a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comic-book fixation who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. As Mancreu's small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer. He needs him to be a hero.

Nick Harkaway is the author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker, and of an even better and more exciting novel whose name will probably end up being Tigerman, or possibly Man, Island, Boy. Contrary to what you may have heard, the title really is the hard part. When he's not writing, he spends his time being the husband of a brilliant lawyer and the dad of two small children who are secretly bent on world domination. He likes Italian red wine and lives in a bit of London where the taxis still have a horse at the pointy end.

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. Words quiver whenever he writes. * Scotsman * Nick Harkaway's novels inhabit a remarkably imaginative territory. He is J.G. Ballard's geeky younger brother, pumped up on steam-punk and pop culture, interested in the effects of modern life on our psyches; he is J.G. Farrell's grandson, poking at the ruins of civilization and seeing what comes out ...Harkaway writes with a precision that belies the fantastical nature of his plots ...Nick Harkaway manipulates and subverts conventions and archetypes. He has created something with all the hallmarks of the craftsmanship that he extols, making Tigerman a sly commentary on authorship and genre; and perhaps more importantly, a fantasia both swashbuckling and glorious. * Times Literary Supplement * Nick Harkaway's best novel yet, full of irrepressible adventure, practical vigilantism, an island murder mystery and some terrifyingly credible ideas including the seismic mash-up of chemical waste and unknown bacteria and the chilling no-man's land of the international of waters of the Fleet where anything goes. It's busting with heart and verve. I loved it utterly. -- Lauren Beukes Harkaway occupies that enviable territory where books of a speculative nature intersect with the mainstream, as evidenced by his previous novels The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker. Tigerman, his third, is his best yet, a funny, moving and thought-provoking tale ... it's brilliant. * Independent on Sunday * Extraordinary...The action sequences in Tigerman are some of Harkaway's best. As ever, the writing is economical but lively, revelling in modern idiom...[Has] the cinematic scope and dynamism one has come to expect from Harkaway...The ending of Tigerman is pitch-perfect, thrilling and dramatic. * Literary Review *