Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

An evocative, frightening and insightful debut, Tiger in Red Weather is heart-breakingly breath-taking. Set just after the second world war, this is a story that delves into a family's lives, loves and truths. Nick (a lady) and Hughes are newly-weds, Helena (Nick's cousin) has married a second time and the world is new. But life is never quite like you imagined it to be and one incredibly honest line from Nick to her young daughter Daisy is: 'If there's one thing you can be sure about in this life, it's that you won't always be kissing the right person.'

Nick is like that. Always wanting to be interesting, different, never being ordinary or staid. She is always pushing at the world, pushing for life or something that makes her feel alive. It is almost as if she cannot see what is right in front of her. Her husband Hughes is beautiful, she is so in love with him she knows even if she left she wouldn't be able to stay away. It reminded me of a line from the movie Gigi where she says to Gaston: 'I would rather be miserable with you than without you.' I felt like Nick had made that decision but spent her whole life fighting it. She is a complex and fascinating character and I love that Liza Klaussmann based her on her grandmother. It shows how well she knew her grandmother, how much she loved her.
Hughes is incredibly gentle and sweet, but he is damaged. Damaged by a war and the 'world on fire'. He has a past that has almost driven him from Nick, to be a sleepwalker in his own life, existenting within a self he no longer knows. Change has come upon him, like everyone in this novel, as a surprise and he cannot find his way back to who he was before.

Liza gives us a glimpse into every main character's head (Nick, Hughes, Daisy, Helena and Ed), drawing us further into a family of complicated untruths and secrets that always lay beneath the surface. You feel so drawn in to this story you can hardly believe it isn't real. You are completely entrenched in their lives, in the world of Tiger House.

I really don't want to ruin this book for anyone, but forget everything you have ever known and then read this book. It will jolt your system and draw you into yourself like nothing I have ever read before. It is life, life in a book coiled and just waiting to spring.

With its chilling undercurrent and incomparable ability to create characters who are so real you can smell the martinis, it is the perfect summer read. Curl up with a cocktail shaker close to hand and get ready for the glitz, glamour and terrifying truths. You will not regret it. I, for one, will never be the same again.