The Tiger's Wife
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Set in war-torn Yugoslavia, The Tiger's Wife is a tale steeped in local fables and driven by one woman's experience of the never-ending violence that swept the Balkans. As Natalia and a friend travel across the former Yugoslavia, immunizing villagers, the body of her grandfather turns up in a hospital
… More »Set in war-torn Yugoslavia, The Tiger's Wife is a tale steeped in local fables and driven by one woman's experience of the never-ending violence that swept the Balkans. As Natalia and a friend travel across the former Yugoslavia, immunizing villagers, the body of her grandfather turns up in a hospital in the middle of nowhere. She and her family have no idea why. Recalling stories he told her as a child, she becomes convinced that he went in search of the Deathless Man, a mythical figure, that her grandfather claimed to have met a number of times in his life. In her quest to find out how her grandfather, a man of hard fact and science, could turn to this fantasy, she discovers something particular about his childhood: a tiger escaped from a zoo during Word War II bombings and wandered deep into the woods, settling just outside his peasant village. It terrorized the town, the devil incarnate to everyone, except for her grandfather and 'the tiger's wife'...
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Amid the war-scarred landscape of a fictionalized Balkan country, a young doctor, Natalia, faces superstition and secrecy on a humanitarian trip to an orphanage across the border. At the same time, she searches for the truth of her grandfather's mysterious final days and his solitary death in a small country village. In Eastern Orthodox tradition, we learn, “the forty days of the soul begin on the morning after death.” During that time, it will “make its way to the places of its past.” Natalia must return home with her grandfather's personal effects before those forty days pass so that his soul can find its way. Des Plaines Readers' Services/Ms_Fitz
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Add a QuoteIt took him a long time to ask, “Been around children much?” He wasn’t looking at me, so he didn’t see me shrug. After a while, I shrugged again, tapped my book with a pencil. Eventually, I asked: “Why?” He sat up, pushed his chair away from the table and rubbed his knees. “When men die, they die in fear,” he said. “They take everything they need from you, and as a doctor it is your job to give it, to comfort them, to hold their hand. But children die how they have been living—in hope. They don’t know what’s happening, so they expect nothing, they don’t ask you to hold their hand—but you end up needing them to hold yours. With children, you’re on your own. Do you understand?
“These stories run like secret rivers through all the other stories”
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Add a CommentI really enjoyed this book. The interweaving of past and present did not feel contrived, and I found it difficult to stop reading.
I absolutely this book. it rambled on & shared a bunch of short stories, similar to cold mountain and lacked in a meaningful central conflict/plot. I would have stopped reading it after the first 20 pages when I realised that it wasn't for me, except that I was on an airplane for 5 hours & it was either read it or stare out the window. Moral of the story: don't bother reading this unless you're trapped.
I found this book did not have enough interest in the first ten pages to keep me going and I am an avid reader. I am sure it will have appeal for some people, just not for me.
Although some of my friends never really got into this book, I really found it enchanting. It is like reading a very well-written fairy tale for adults. I found the situations and people sympathetic and interesting and the topics of war and death important. Definitely worth picking up.
Hard to get into.
Disappointing that by the end you just find out the rest of the background story and don't get any more development of the narrator.
Like a collection of short stories, the multiple tales in this book are woven together. I found the magical realism striking, and the fact that many places in this novel seem foreign it's as if they are happening in some fairy tale, not the real world. I enjoyed this book and the sense of history all the characters and places had.
I feel so bad for recommending this book for my book club. I'm only halfway through but oh my god is it boring. Giving it two stars because some of the actual writing and descriptive language is good. I'm so disappointed after hearing so much about it, I really wanted to read and like this book! Either save yourself the time and read something else or finish it and let me know if it gets any better ;)
Story of a woman and her grandfather, both doctors, woven from Balkan folk tales and real life – a magical blending of fantasy & realism. This is the author’s first book which won the 2011 Orange Prize. Remarkable read!
This novel captures issues related to the Balkans feud over religion, territory, and people in a magical and highly readable way. I can see why many say that Obeht is one of the best young authors of our time.