The Tiger

Its protagonist, a German family scion born in 1911 and known simply as Lucien, grows up under the tutelage of his grandmother, Misia Schmutter, a despot who rules her Venezuelan estate as if she were a spider who spins a web not so much for killing (although she does this too) but for the fascination of power.

She molds Lucien to her will, and after dying becomes a supernatural presence clinging to his back like the predatory tiger the boy once killed.

But while her creed seems vaguely fascist, it is transmuted by Lucien's somewhat gentler spirit into a kind of existential obsession with pure action.

This is, in fact, a story of obsession: Misia's for order and the will; Lucien's for architecture, gardens and gambling, and those of other characters, whose feelings range from love to bitterness.