The Tiger's Wife: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • The instant classic debut novel from the author of Inland and The Morningside, hailed as “a thrilling beginning to what will certainly be a great literary career” (Elle)
“Spectacular . . . [Téa Obreht] spins a tale of such marvel and magic in a literary voice so enchanting that the mesmerized reader wants her never to stop.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Not since Zadie Smith has a young writer arrived with such power and grace.”—Time
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times; Entertainment Weekly; The Christian Science Monitor; The Kansas City Star; Library Journal
In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife.
Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, hailed by Colum McCann as “the most thrilling literary discovery in years,” has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Economist, Vogue, Slate, Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, Dayton Daily News, Publishers Weekly, Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered
“Spectacular . . . [Téa Obreht] spins a tale of such marvel and magic in a literary voice so enchanting that the mesmerized reader wants her never to stop.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Not since Zadie Smith has a young writer arrived with such power and grace.”—Time
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times; Entertainment Weekly; The Christian Science Monitor; The Kansas City Star; Library Journal
In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife.
Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, hailed by Colum McCann as “the most thrilling literary discovery in years,” has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Economist, Vogue, Slate, Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times, Dayton Daily News, Publishers Weekly, Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered
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Community Reviews
Set against a backdrop of the Balkan wars, it is the story of Natalia Stefanovic, a young doctor from an unnamed Balkan town, and her relationship with her grandfather, also a doctor.
Natalia and her grandfather had always been close, bonding during trips to the local zoo when she was a child. Her grandfather had a special affinity for the tigers, and carried an old copy of The Jungle Book with him wherever he went. She comes to learn of a story from her grandfather's childhood, when a tiger ran loose in his town, and a young deaf-mute woman who tries to protect the tiger becomes known as "the tiger's wife" by the rest of the locals. I loved the way the author told the story of wars and struggles through the eyes and souls of the animals.
Another story her grandfather shared with her was "the deathless man," whom he encountered several times throughout his life. Both of these stories weave through like magical, mythical tales during the harsh realities of war and unrest.
(A bonus to find out later that the author got a little inspiration during trips to Syracuse's Burnet Park Zoo!)
Natalia and her grandfather had always been close, bonding during trips to the local zoo when she was a child. Her grandfather had a special affinity for the tigers, and carried an old copy of The Jungle Book with him wherever he went. She comes to learn of a story from her grandfather's childhood, when a tiger ran loose in his town, and a young deaf-mute woman who tries to protect the tiger becomes known as "the tiger's wife" by the rest of the locals. I loved the way the author told the story of wars and struggles through the eyes and souls of the animals.
Another story her grandfather shared with her was "the deathless man," whom he encountered several times throughout his life. Both of these stories weave through like magical, mythical tales during the harsh realities of war and unrest.
(A bonus to find out later that the author got a little inspiration during trips to Syracuse's Burnet Park Zoo!)
Obreht has a gift with words; her sentences are lush and lyrical and beautiful. The careful way she crafts each paragraph shows an uncommon skill with language and from that I derived great enjoyment. But despite the beauty of how the words were strung together, I never found myself compelled to keep reading. Or to pick it up after I had set it aside. As pretty as the words were, the story they told - or tried to tell - lacked focus and interest. The stories within the story were interesting and had a good narrative, but the main story itself seemed to meander and get lost. And by the end I found that I really didn't care. That is not to say that I did not like the book - I liked it and some parts of it I even liked very much - but when I finished it it felt incomplete and I felt vaguely disappointed. I think I would have enjoyed two novelettes - the Tiger's Wife and The Deathless Man - much more than this shell that was wrapped around them about people I never got to know well enough to care about.
Interesting. A little confusing. This story seems to be about a young doctor discovering truths about her grandfather doctor,and about people's lives in a war; but maybe it's just about the tiger's wife.
This novel was more beautiful than I thought it would be. I heard about it through the New York Times Book Review and Oprah's magazine and was impressed that a first time novelist, at age 26, made such an impact. A well deserved impact.
I think what I liked best was the style she wrote in, how she left so many things unwritten and really did leave us without a lot of "facts". Everything feels like it's general except for the stories. I'm not sure that made sense....
Somewhere in the Balkans, we have no idea where, a doctor and her grandfather are introduced to us. From there, we follow both their paths via stories told to us from the past. The doctor, Natalia, explains to us how her grandfather always took her to the zoo to see the tigers. We end up back in her grandfather's village as he's growing up and learn about the Tiger's wife, a deaf-mute who has a special bond with a tiger that escaped from the zoo during the war. From there we travel with Natalia to another place where she is providing vaccinations to orphans and trying to find the place her grandfather died to get his belongings. The back to stories of her grandfather's encounter with the "deathless man" who Natalia is sure she is going to meet as well.
As jumbled as my telling of this is, trust me that the book weaves everything together in to one seamless, beautiful story of doctors, death and tigers.
I think what I liked best was the style she wrote in, how she left so many things unwritten and really did leave us without a lot of "facts". Everything feels like it's general except for the stories. I'm not sure that made sense....
Somewhere in the Balkans, we have no idea where, a doctor and her grandfather are introduced to us. From there, we follow both their paths via stories told to us from the past. The doctor, Natalia, explains to us how her grandfather always took her to the zoo to see the tigers. We end up back in her grandfather's village as he's growing up and learn about the Tiger's wife, a deaf-mute who has a special bond with a tiger that escaped from the zoo during the war. From there we travel with Natalia to another place where she is providing vaccinations to orphans and trying to find the place her grandfather died to get his belongings. The back to stories of her grandfather's encounter with the "deathless man" who Natalia is sure she is going to meet as well.
As jumbled as my telling of this is, trust me that the book weaves everything together in to one seamless, beautiful story of doctors, death and tigers.
I wanted to like this book. I'd hear good things about it, and it had excellent reviews. But it just didn't do it for me. I kept looking for nuggets along the way - something special to emerge, questions to be answered, etc. I felt like something had gotten lost in translation, and I just didn't get it. Or just maybe there wasn't anything more to it. But in the end, I think it just wasn't written for me.
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