Tiger, Tiger - Hardcover

Fragoso, Margaux

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374277621 ISBN 13: 9780374277628

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2011

Synopsis

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
Tiger, Tiger is a Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction title for 2011A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of 2011 title

One summer day, Margaux Fragoso meets Peter Curran at the neighborhood swimming pool, and they begin to play. She is seven; he is fifty-one. When Peter invites her and her mother to his house, the little girl finds a child’s paradise of exotic pets and an elaborate backyard garden. Her mother, beset by mental illness and overwhelmed by caring for Margaux, is grateful for the attention Peter lavishes on her, and he creates an imaginative universe for her, much as Lewis Carroll did for his real-life Alice.

In time, he insidiously takes on the role of Margaux’s playmate, father, and lover. Charming and manipulative, Peter burrows into every aspect of Margaux’s life and transforms her from a child fizzing with imagination and affection into a brainwashed young woman on the verge of suicide. But when she is twenty-two, it is Peter—ill, and wracked with guilt—who kills himself, at the age of sixty-six.

Told with lyricism, depth, and mesmerizing clarity, Tiger, Tiger vividly illustrates the healing power of memory and disclosure. This extraordinary memoir is an unprecedented glimpse into the psyche of a young girl in free fall and conveys to readers—including parents and survivors of abuse—just how completely a pedophile enchants his victim and binds her to him.

About this title

Review:

'Tiger, Tiger will start a thousand conversations. It is shocking, revelatory and fearless. As the story of a victim, it is gripping; as a work of literature, it's a triumph' (Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones)

Margaux Fragoso was only 7 years old when she swam up to a guy in his 50s and asked him to play with her. The mesmerizing memoir of the next fifteen years - spent with the pedophile who became her playmate, father, and lover - had us enraged, horrified, and unable to put it down. (Daily Candy, the 10 Nonfiction Reads of the New Year)

Margaux Fragoso's memoir, a subtly crafted account of her 15-year involvement as a child and adolescent with a middle-aged man, asks urgent questions about the traffic between memory and art. (Boyd Tonkin, Ones to Watch in 2011 The Independent)

An Observer Cultural Highlight of 2011 (The Observer)

What I'm Telling My Friends: Brave, dark, and horrifying ... an unforgettable survivor's story. Get it. Read it. NOW! (Julie Kane LibraryJournal.com)

Revelatory...her tale loops amazingly around her own coming-of-age and sets her down in adulthood with a transformative twist...it breaks the mold...an astonishing and heartbreaking drama. (Elle US)

We dare you to turn away. (O, The Oprah Magazine)

Astonishing. (Marie Claire US)

Fragoso is a born storyteller, and stories were her fail-safe during her scarring entanglement with the man who devoured her childhood....[She] matches shattering exposure with humanizing insights and extraordinary compassion. (Booklist)

A Top Ten Memoir of 2011. (Publisher's Weekly)

About the Author:

Margaux Fragoso recently completed a PhD in English and creative writing at Binghamton University. Her short stories and poems have appeared inThe Literary Review and Barrow Street, among other literary journals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0374277621
• ISBN 13: 9780374277628
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320