Back on February 24 for Solferino «The tiger and the acrobat», a fable about the growth of a feline and its relationship with humans. The new edition illustrated by Lindsey Carr
Susanna Tamaro, with over twenty million copies sold, is not only one of the best known Italian writers in the world, but one of our most eccentric and original voices. The ability to go to the reader’s heart, to face difficult spiritual issues with clear and direct language, the passion for the world of nature, the ability with which he holds wisdom texts that do not belong only to the Christian tradition in the background are clearly visible in a of his most successful works, The tiger and the acrobatpublished by La nave di Teseo in the second half of 2016 e which the publisher Solferino now proposes with the illustrations by Lindsey Carr.
Like his best known novel, Go where your heart takes youalso The tiger and the acrobat lends itself to multiple levels of reading: training text that reminds us of some pages by Hermann Hesse, a fable for children in which it is explained what it means to be faithful to one’s species, but also how much more important and difficult it is to cultivate and follow one’s vocation , hymn to the beauty of nature that can be read with the eyes of science or common sense, but also with those of the spirit. Having eyes, learning to observe is essential, but not everyone has the ability to look, while rare people are granted the gift of vision. The exergue that opens the book is an ancient verse of the Upanishad: “Yes, this light from beyond the firmament, which shines beyond everything, beyond the highest mountains, yes, this light is the same light that shines in the heart of man”.
Little Tiger was born in the most extreme Taiga and immediately shows signs of being different from those of its species. Refusing to inherit the kingdom offered to her by her mother, she goes into unknown territories until she commits the most serious mistake, approaching the man’s hut, the only living thing that the queen of the Taiga must fear, because he does not kill out of need but out of sport or envy. Obeying a sort of predestination, the protagonist disobeys her parent, who had known all the wisdom and perfidy of human beings thanks to her friendship with a shaman who had presented himself to her in the animal-like guise of her species. Even for Little Tiger, the first meeting with the man, also a good shaman, who shuns the tricks of his profession, is positive.
The teachings of this sage, who uselessly sacrifices his life because he does not want to hand over his friend to the animal merchants, will accompany the entire journey of the tiger, who will experience the depression of being in a cage, the humiliation of circus performances, the stupidity and wickedness of men, but will meet other pure spirits, capable of gaze and dialogue.
The first friend is the acrobat of the title, the young son of two circus athletes who twirl from one trapeze to another while the fair under the commands of the tamer practices jumping in the circles of fire. It will be the boy who will free the tiger from the chains, who on the run on the outskirts of a metropolis she would be lost without the help of another pure spirit, “the man in rags,” a bum who finds meaning in his miserable existence in helping the unexpected new friend. Little Tiger manages to leave the concrete forest and flee to the mountains, where she sees the snow again, she smells known scents, she relives certain situations from her childhood. But the mountains present different difficulties from the Taiga.
The final part of the story is the most allegorical and rarefied, in which the protagonist becomes fully aware of her own diversity and understands the meaning of a prophecy of her shaman friend: “Sad lives that never meet a wall.” The continuous ascent to the highest and steepest peaks, the renouncing of the vital (for a tiger) instinct to kill are the metaphor of the conquest of a higher spiritual stage.
The story is ideally linked to the pages of Go where your heart takes you in which Tamaro uses the metaphor of the tiger as a symbol of the courage necessary for faith. Began with the verses of a text of the Veda tradition, The tiger and the acrobat it closes with the words of St. Mark: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God”.
The upcoming book
Susanna Tamaro’s book «The tiger and the acrobat» is released on Thursday 24 February, in a new edition with illustrations by Lindsey Carr (Solferino, pages 176, € 15). Susanna Tamaro was born in Trieste on December 12, 1957. she is an immensely successful writer, she is also known for her marked spiritual sensitivity. Lindsey Carr is a Scottish artist and illustrator. She lives in Glasgow
February 18, 2022 (change February 18, 2022 | 22:16)
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