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The Tiger and the Cosmonaut
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut | Eddy Boudel Tan
4 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
A noirish page-turner about a mysterious disappearance and a moving portrait of a Chinese Canadian family navigating insecurities, expectations, and simmering anger in their small BC town. Casper Han grew up the dutiful son of immigrants who never felt entirely welcome in their remote corner of British Columbia. Now an adult, living in Vancouver with a boyfriend whose privilege he quietly resents, Casper rarely returns to his hometown, the site of a grief his family doesnt discuss: the loss of his twin brother, Sam. Over twenty years have passed since Sam went missing, and a crisis brings Casper and his siblings back. Their father has vanished, only to be found wandering the vast woods beyond the family home, confused and clutching a pair of scissors, seemingly trapped in the memory of that tragic night. In order to move forward, the Han family must finally confront the past and untangle the mystery of what really happened to Sam. Combining the atmosphere and intrigue of a cracking good suspense novel with the depth of a rich character study, The Tiger and the Cosmonaut tells the story of a family whose members have long made themselves small and quiet and obedientand what happens when the cycle is finally broken.
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Mattsbookaday
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut | Eddy Boudel Tan
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Pickpick

The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, by Eddy Boudel Tan (2025 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A man is called back to his hometown on BC‘s Sunshine Coast after his father disappears in a turn of events that eerily mirrors the disappearance of his brother.

Review: The Giller longlist is really hitting it out of the park this year! It‘s rare to see a mystery on one of these major awards lists, but this is more than deserving. ⬇️

Mattsbookaday Not only is it a taut and effective mystery, but it also deals really well with themes of race, queerness, family, and the question of whether change is possible. This is excellent.

Bookish Pair: While very different stories, something about this reminded me of Happiness Falls, by Angie Kim (2023)
2w
BarbaraBB Stacked! 2w
See All 8 Comments
BarbaraBB I just checked. It isn‘t available in the Netherlands yet and I can‘t even preorder it on Amazon. Patience… 2w
Mattsbookaday @BarbaraBB That is always such a pain when books have a long lag for international publishing! At least there are plenty of other great books for you to read in the meantime! 2w
Suet624 Two five star reads in a row. Lucky you! 2w
Mattsbookaday @Suet624 The literary prize lists have been very good to me this week! 2w
Chelsea.Poole Great review. I really enjoyed Happiness Falls so maybe this one is for me too. 2w
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TheKidUpstairs
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut | Eddy Boudel Tan
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Pickpick

As seems to be the way with Prize-listed books this year, I really liked this but fell short of loving it. A story of small town prejudice and family secrets, and of the many ways one can be an outsider.
It's a bit of a slow start, with some unnecessarily purple prose at the beginning - it seemed to be trying to establish lit fic cred. But once the family story gets underway and secrets begin their unveiling, it finds its groove. #GillerLonglist

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TheKidUpstairs
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut | Eddy Boudel Tan
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"I'd forgotten how goofy my sister could be. I suppose this happens with absence. Our perceptions of each other flatten, unchallenged by evidence that might form a clearer, fuller image. We become faint notions of ourselves rather than the tangle of contradictory details we actually are."

BarbaraBB Beautiful quote 👌🏽 3w
51 likes1 comment
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TheKidUpstairs
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut | Eddy Boudel Tan
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Alright #GillerLonglist, let's see what you've got!