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The Tiger's Wife

by Téa Obreht (Goodreads Author)

3.36 of 5 stars 3.36 · rating details · 46,366 ratings · 6,819 reviews

The sometimes crushing power of myth, story, and memory is explored in the brilliant debut of Obreht, the youngest of the New Yorker's 20-under-40. Natalia Stefanovi, a doctor living (and, in between suspensions, practicing) in an unnamed country that's a ringer for Obreht's native Croatia, crosses the border in search of answers about the death of her beloved grandfather,...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published March 10th 2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (first published March 8th 2011)

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Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson

Orange Prize Shortlist 2011

3rd out of 6 books — 14 voters

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Apr 28, 2013 Fergie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm probably one of the few people who didn't "get" this book. While I give credit to Tea Obreht for her ingenuity and creativity with the story, I felt at times frustrated by the pace of the the book and the way it wound through the fantastical tales which I found more distracting than entertaining or enlightening in its detour from the main story.
I kept wanting to care about the main character, Natalia, and the relationship she shared with her grandfather but felt Obreht kept me hanging and d...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Nadine Millar rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-it, i-want-my-time-back, one-star-wonders

Thank goodness for other reviewers with more patience than me - I was able to understand more about the book in an hour browsing the discussion/review pages on Goodreads than 3 weeks wrestling with the Tiger. After checking others views on the book to make sure it wasn't entirely my fault that the Tiger and I didn't bond, here's the criticisms I still maintain:

And using bullet points, because I love 'em:

- The fables: It's not that I can't do magical realism, I absolutely can. Marquez; Allende; E...more Thank goodness for other reviewers with more patience than me - I was able to understand more about the book in an hour browsing the discussion/review pages on Goodreads than 3 weeks wrestling with the Tiger. After checking others views on the book to make sure it wasn't entirely my fault that the Tiger and I didn't bond, here's the criticisms I still maintain:

And using bullet points, because I love 'em:

- The fables: It's not that I can't do magical realism, I absolutely can. Marquez; Allende; Esquivel; Saramago; Yes please, serve me up. It's not even that 'The Deathless Man' and 'The Tiger's Wife' are empty stories - the opposite in fact. The problem is a) the stilted nature in which the fables are told b) the link between the two central fables being so precarious as to be utterly unconvincing - is it magic realism or isn't it? I don't think Obreht can decide and c) the fables are buried, to the extent that you feel as though they are being deliberately concealed from you, in a mountain of pointless (though A+) descriptions about inanimate objects (I'll get to that later, it deserves its own bullet point).

- Boredom: Other brave reviewers have already said it; even ones who have been so generous as to still dole out 3 and 4 stars. And that is that it all feels a bit pointless. What's the story actually about? What am I left with (apart from a headache?). If you ask me in two weeks I flat out just won't know.

- "A lack of emotion": (That's actually a quote from the The Guardian's review). Lets use some concrete examples. Natalia and Zora? Their friendship, apparently as old as they are, has about as much depth to it as puddle of water. Why wouldn't Natalia share the news of her Grandfather's death with her so-called "best friend"? What life experiences had they been through that made them the kind of kids that get kicks out of dissecting, in fairly gruesome circumstances, pigs hearts? Not your average teenage girls, surely - but we wouldn't know because Natalia tells us nothing about what makes her tick (let alone the elusive chain-smoking Zora). And Natalia's Grandfather, arguably the most important character in the book - why are there great gaping holes in what we know about his life? We have such incredible (read "bbbooooring") detail surrounding Luka, his mother, his brothers, his father, his musical aspirations, his ten year sabbatical and tragic love songs that aren't even borne out of his own experiences, and for what? I think it is supposed to explain why he ultimately turned into a henous wife-beating monster. Er, sorry, no - it doesn't actually. Just as all the inane detail (pages and pages) about Darisa The Bear's childhood and how it shaped him in becoming a hunter of such great repute in later life - I still fail to see how any of this early detail was relevant to the whole of the story. Or maybe there was no point, and that is the point - "we're just telling stories". Oh, Ok!! But, just so you know, it's freaking boring! In my view, the balance of power in this novel is held by the wrong characters - the depth is given to stories that frankly don't deserve it, while complete superficiality (at best) is all that is afforded to the stories that actually matter.

- The long, long-winded descriptions: Yes, Obreht can write. If this is an exercise in cramming adjectives into sentences (or WOW words, as we call them in Year 2), yep, she succeeded. And she's 25, the youngest ever Orange Prize winner. Ok, I get it, she's talented! But what use is this without a real life actual story to tell? (see above). Primarily, Obreht's talent is directed towards describing places, objects, and events, (without emotion, as I said before) in the kind of detail only God would notice. And THAT there is probably my main criticism of the book - because remember, we're dealing with a first person narrative. I'm sorry, but a person does not walk into a room and take notice of the way a painting sits half an inch to the left on a wall covered in a fine film of whoknowswhat while some animal scratches beneath the heavy brown floor boards, the ones with the rusty nails protruding out of them threateningly. Here's an example (much better than mine, naturally).

"The street below dead-ended in a flattened patch of pale grass, bordered on either side by netless goal frames. A slide and some tire swings had been set up on the lip of a wheat field that caught the afternoon light and held it in a shivering glare. Beyond that lay the graveyard, white crosses turned out toward the sea. The wind had subsided, and the road was deserted except for a single motted goat, tethered to the fence post of what looked like an enormous metal box opposite the clinic. The BEER sign braced against an oil drum under the awning was to be believed, this was the bar".

Well written? Yes. Riveting? No. Even more implausibly, the vast majority of the time Natalia is recalling this detail based on what she has heard second, third, even fourth hand - or from her grandfather eons earlier. Even if I am to suppose Natalia has some super-human memory that allows her to recall all these minor threads in minute detail, I can't get past the idea that anyone walks around (doing nothing, going nowhere) "thinking" to themselves this way. I admit plenty of excellent books combine first person narrative with contextual descriptions of scene or atmosophere (I just finished When God Was a Rabbit - perfect example of the right balance) - but it's usually very subtle. Broken up with dialogue, events, oooh, I don't know - something actually happening once in a while. But Obreht's descriptive passages can go on for pages and pages and none of it adds anything at all to the PLOT (it's not an evil word people). It reminded me of reading a police report, or court transcript. A flowery one, to be sure, but that is the kind mundane observations and recollection of events that you're wading through. I needed more action, more convincing dialogue. Natalia was a person herself without a story, without a VOICE of her own; how ironic is that, being that it's a story about stories. And then when Natalia gets on to recounting what she's been able to glean from the memories of the villagers still living today, and also from her Grandfather based on what he told her before he died, that's when my raised eyebrow really begins to hurt. It's woolly and impossible to tether.

- And then there's the grating fact that it's devoid of place. The country, the city, the warring factions, all nameless. Why? Why? Why?

I probably didn't need to write such a long review. Goodness knows I already want the last three weeks of precious book reading time back. I could have just said "when you have to go to Goodreads and read several other reviews to work out what the book was really saying, there's a problem". (less)

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Jun 16, 2011 Carolyn Crocker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of those books that casts a spell from which you emerge so reluctantly after the last word. The cycles of death and rebirth, superstition and truth, love and revenge weave through the legends and family stories of the Balkans and the quests of two doctors, a modern young woman and her beloved grandfather.

"When your fight has purpose--to free you from something, to interfere on behalf of the innocent--it has the hope of finality. When the fight is about unraveling-- when it is about your nam...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

When I finished The Tiger's Wife by Tia Obrecht, I realized that this read is not the one I expected. Instead, it's a gentle read about memories, death, and the future. Natalia loves her grandfather dearly. He taught her so much about life and people that when he dies she begins to recall the many incidents that marked his life and hers. She was the only one he told he was so ill to the distress of her grandmother. He was her mentor so she, too, became a doctor. One of the stories that is so mem...more

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Jun 26, 2011 aPriL MEOWS often with scratching rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary, metafiction

It's so sad. People create meaning out of events that befuddle and frighten them to help put context into the diary they write every sunset. There is the story of the isolated village with expected roles for each villager in relationship to the village reprised several times decades apart in the book. The outsiders that drift into the village's story where the inhabitants are not sure these newcomers aren't evil spirits rather than people no matter how long they stay. How fear compresses time an...more It's so sad. People create meaning out of events that befuddle and frighten them to help put context into the diary they write every sunset. There is the story of the isolated village with expected roles for each villager in relationship to the village reprised several times decades apart in the book. The outsiders that drift into the village's story where the inhabitants are not sure these newcomers aren't evil spirits rather than people no matter how long they stay. How fear compresses time and feelings into wild scapegoating and more superstitious explanations made to fit after hundreds of whispered consultations amongst neighbors. Then war and a tiger, impossible events to village thinking without some kind of magical evil being drawn by unknown disturbance to their already misty isolated forest village, cause a linking story of cause and effect in mythical terms about the tiger and an outsider child wife of their brute of a butcher. All this forms the background to the childhood of a beloved grandfather who dies mysteriously far from home. His granddaughter, recipient and confidant of her grandfather's stories, feels the need to flesh out the stories of his past, to make his death a meaningful death.

Modern science in the form of inoculations against disease are no match for religious beliefs hundreds of years old. Despite the university education, the medical degrees, the kind hearted motives of grandfather and granddaughter, the proven science of healing, no one can stop the destructive myth making behind the fear and grief caused by Death. Death cannot be simply a scientific process, it has to have a physical presence and an intelligence, motivation and purpose. It's powers can be suborned by evil spirits bent on wrecking ordinary family life. Death is impossible to think about unless somehow mythologized into mystical human patterns, hard science be damned.

I am someone who prefers the truth of science reality. This book reveals how the extreme human fear of meaningless death causes sad, to me, struggles of the mind for cause and effect in typical brain pathways throughout history, as well as how the interplay of community, the past and survival of the group means more than individual truth or reality. The survival of the tribe especially under stresses like Death bring the most primitive coping mechanisms into action. As the writer shows how love and fear twine together for the apparent necessity of mystic explanations about death, preferred over demeaning reality and shameful human behaviors and stupidities, it's left to personal reader interpretation of the exposed underbelly of our psychological response to death. I have a bad taste in my mouth reading this book and recognizing the twists people do to reject reality. Even the animals must resort to devastating acts for distraction from impossible fear. Sigh. A very depressing book. (less)

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Sep 12, 2012 Shane Malcolm rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-and-novellas

It's taken me a month to process this book. I almost gave it two stars, but just can't: the writing is so good, and the scope is quite impressive. Possibly too impressive? There is so damn much going on in this book: the narrator's mission with Zora to bring medicine to the orphans, and the mystery of the buried body; the mystery of the Grandfather's disappearance and death; the narrator's stories of growing up with her grandfather; the story of the Grandfather's childhood, and the Tiger's Wife;...more

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May 02, 2011 April rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Initially, getting into this book was quite difficult for me. There just wasn't enough there in the beginning chapters to hook me in, but I kept reading anyway because of the praises for this book. I kept thinking, am I not getting something here? There's been a large amount of hype for "The Tiger's Wife" and perhaps that's the reason why it did not live up to my expectations. The folklore tales were the best part of this book. I enjoyed reading about the origins of all of the characters that ha...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think it's interesting to look at the literature coming out now that has to do with building a mythology. Is it because of the incredible works of people like Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino and others who have influenced so strongly this generation? Or is it that as we become increasingly godless and mythless, there is something to the human that needs the myth to survive. I am reminded by the knitting and food preserving revolutions that have exploded, something that use...more

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May 26, 2011 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-authors, eastern-european-literature, literary-fiction, folktales

Civil war in the Balkans has left that region bereft and in need. It is in this fascinating region that Téa Obreht sets her elegantly written debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife.

While the protagonist of The Tiger’s Wife is Natalia Stefanovic, a young doctor who has returned to her homeland to help the villagers, the central mystery of the book revolves around Natalia’s beloved grandfather as Natalia seeks to reconstruct his final days and his death in a village named Zdrevkov, far from his home.

Althou...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Cecily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: miscellaneous-fiction

A tricky book to categorise, with SO many threads (and this review will do likewise): Natalia recounts her memories of two periods in her life: childhood and a journey she makes as a young doctor in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia. These are mingled with magical-realistic stories of a generation or two earlier, and references to Shere Khan in Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”.

There are also longish diversions into the backstory of other characters (Luka, the husband of "the Tiger’s Wife",...more

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May 07, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2012

Perhaps because I have some family ties to the region of the former Yugoslavia, I lovingly embraced the setting of The Tiger's Wife. "The City" is never revealed but I assumed it was meant to be Belgrade. I recognized some of the superstitions and folk tales and smiled and rolled my eyes. When our protagonist Natalia describes the uses of rakija to bring down a fever I was transported back to my childhood bedroom and the eye-stinging stench of rakija-soaked towels forcibly pressed to my forehead...more Perhaps because I have some family ties to the region of the former Yugoslavia, I lovingly embraced the setting of The Tiger's Wife. "The City" is never revealed but I assumed it was meant to be Belgrade. I recognized some of the superstitions and folk tales and smiled and rolled my eyes. When our protagonist Natalia describes the uses of rakija to bring down a fever I was transported back to my childhood bedroom and the eye-stinging stench of rakija-soaked towels forcibly pressed to my forehead.

"The little girl was looking at me without fear or deference, and I found myself coming into the room, taking a few steps on the balls of my feet. At this distance, I could smell the alcohol, the thin, searing smell of walnut rakija. The sheet has been soaked in it; they were trying to bring down her fever, break it by cooling her very quickly. It was a backwater method, a precipitous gamble, and we'd seen it over and over at the urgent care clinic - new mothers who couldn't be steered away from their own mothers' remedies."

Obreht writes beautifully. The story jumps from the present day where an adult Natalia learns of her beloved grandfather's death, to stories of her grandfather as a child. Death is prevalent in every page. From her grandfather's mysterious passing in the opening pages to "The deathless man" - people die throughout this book. Children of illness and war, a man accidentally shoots himself in the head, people dig throughout the night searching for a corpse. It's morbid and morose and wonderfully so.

Obreht succeeds in creating an atmosphere rich in imagery. In one scene Natalia and her grandfather stand in the middle of the night on a deserted village street watching an escaped elephant strolling the boulevard. "Eventually my grandfather said: "You must understand, this one one of those moments." "What moments?" "One of those moments you keep to yourself," he said....."We're in a war," he said. "The story of this war - dates, names, who started it, why - that belongs to everyone......but something like this - this is yours. It belongs only to you. And me. Only to us."

Unfortunately, for all the things I loved in this book, the beauty and mysticism, there were glaring flaws. There seemed to be something missing and after mulling it over I can only deduce that it was an emotional connection that lacked. Natalia is so removed and detached and we never get to know her at all. This could be intentional - the core of the story was her grandfather's life and death and the folktales and legends. But it hindered the book in my opinion. Natalia seemed....pointless. She had no personality, almost no back-story and left no impact. The story could've been richer, the horror of the war should've pierced my heart. But it didn't. So I liked this book, but I just can't give it more than three stars.(less)

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Jan 25, 2012 Chrissie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: balkans, fiction, kindle, sample-g, croatia, 2012challenge, serbia, magic

I cannot recommend this book. I have given it only two stars. I am almost thinking of giving this one star. I will be very specific in listing what disturbed me. Let me mention immediately that those readers who enjoy fantasy novels will enjoy this more than I did. The events are so fantastical that I cannot classify this as a book of magical realism, but rather fantasy! I love magical realism, but dislike fantasy.

The themes covered are war, Balkan myths, death and man’s relationship to animals...more

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May 30, 2012 Xdyj rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fa, l-f-ar-af-s, o, q, poc, rtw, us

A fable about death, prejudice & superstition (from the villagers to the sectarian & ethnic conflict which is "about your name, the places to which your blood is anchored, the attachment of your name to some landmark or event"), and hope (Zora, Natalia & her grandfather) set in a fictional Yugoslavia-like country. (I doubt she is really following the Yugoslavia war timeline.) Not as depressing as I expected given the subject matter. Overall an interesting and fairly well-written book...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Cynthia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

Ancient enmities, long ago legends.

I was disappointed which is probably not fair. This book and its author have been hyped so much it would almost be impossible to live up to, having said that this is a there are many wonderful parts to “The Tiger’s Wife”. Obrecht interweaves local Eastern European legends throughout the book helping to explicate the parts that take place currently. She explains a way of thinking through past belief and how those beliefs were formed. For the most part the people...more

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May 04, 2013 Cathy DuPont rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Cathy by: Friend Leonard Pellicer

What to say about this? I must think about how to word this short review because I'm sure some of my Goodreads friends might enjoy it.

A lifelong friend, who lives down the street, said it was the best book he's read in years and "you have to read it." Hope he's not home when I return it because I don't want to say, "I didn't like it much" trying to be nice when someone recommends a book so strongly. He’s not on Goodreads although I have mentioned the site a few times, so he won’t see my review...more What to say about this? I must think about how to word this short review because I'm sure some of my Goodreads friends might enjoy it.

A lifelong friend, who lives down the street, said it was the best book he's read in years and "you have to read it." Hope he's not home when I return it because I don't want to say, "I didn't like it much" trying to be nice when someone recommends a book so strongly. He’s not on Goodreads although I have mentioned the site a few times, so he won’t see my review. He's well read, no question and written a few education and ethics related books as an educator himself.

The book generally, is about death; looking death in the face; how others react to death of loved ones; dying in war; and superstition. That's what I think it's about. The subject matter wasn't the reason I did not care for the book.

What stands out for me mostly as to why I didn't like it is the jumping around from characters and settings. It happened so frequently that I found it disconcerting and then just plain annoying.

Obreht, who was 25 in 2011 when it was published, won awards and recognition for the book. It was touted in the industry as a ground-breaking first book for a ground-breaking creative novelist. Also, it was well marketed and I believe on Oprah’s list, if not on the list, recognized by Oprah as a must read. Unfortunately or not, such awards and recognitions mean nothing to me.

I have read too many bestsellers which to me, didn't deserve to even be on the list, so that in itself doesn't 'turn my head' and encourage me to read a book. But let it be known that I believe that different people enjoy and appreciate different things including books.

Before you pick it up to read though, take a look at the reviews of others on Goodreads to see what they say. In looking through them last week when I decided I didn't care much for the book, it occurred to me that generally, men rated it higher and gave more positive reviews than women. That fact was quite noticeable but I have no idea as to why.

I was fussing with ratings, the stars I was going to choose and decided that three stars, "liked it" just wasn't going to work for me. So it got two stars...it was ok but glad I finished without putting it down and can’t wait to get it out of my house to make room for a book I enjoy. I’m past the point of being ready after slogging through that "award winning" book.
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Apr 24, 2013 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction, war-stories, international, europe

"In Balkan culture, there's almost a knowledge that reality will eventually become myth. In ten or twenty years you will be able to recount what happened today with more and more embellishments until you've completely altered that reality and founded it into the world of myth" -Tea Obreht

Obreht writes about the former Yugoslavia with such storytelling ease, her mythologic style a bit eerie. Tension builds here at just the perfect pace it seems, to keep you in suspense. I first read Obreht's shor...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Ed rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, 3-and-a-half-stars, debut-novel, new-author-to-me, read-on-kindle, tournament-of-books-2012, historical-fiction, magical-realism

There are so many things that I really loved about Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife, but others that I didn't like very much, including aspects of some of those same things I loved. But it is safe to say that Obreht, in her debut novel, has created something unlike you have ever read before.

It is a novel of three stories all set in an unnamed worn-torn country (though a glance at Obreht's bio or an educated guess will take you to - take your pick - Yugoslavia, the Balkans, Serbia, Croatia, etc.): a...more There are so many things that I really loved about Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife, but others that I didn't like very much, including aspects of some of those same things I loved. But it is safe to say that Obreht, in her debut novel, has created something unlike you have ever read before.

It is a novel of three stories all set in an unnamed worn-torn country (though a glance at Obreht's bio or an educated guess will take you to - take your pick - Yugoslavia, the Balkans, Serbia, Croatia, etc.): a modern-day-ish (1990s?) tale of young female doctor dealing with the death of her grandfather and two folkloric myths/tales of the grandfather's past -- the deathless man and (spoiler alert) the tiger's wife.

Often the tricky part with novels with multiple narratives is the competition between them, and such is the case here. While the current day storyline has its compelling parts, particularly the grandchild-grandparent relationship which is beautifully captured here (particularly if you've been fortunate it enough to experience it for yourself), it just lacks the oomph! of the other magical tales (and even among those two, I'd give a marked edge to the deathless man over the the title character).

But even in these wonderful fables, Obreht gets a bit too unfocused and overly detailed (sounds contradictory, I know) for my taste. Readers dive deeper and deeper into story-lines and supporting players where honestly, or editorially, I am not sure they really needed to go. And again, some of these detours worked better than others. This embellishment/bloat glazed me over at times and I just was left with an overall feeling that things could have been tightened up.

Ratings-wise, a no-qualms 3.5 stars, but the rounding for Goodreads has me truly befuddled. There is an awful lot to like in this impressive debut, particularly for an author so young (26 years old at publication date - egads!). Likewise, there is an ambitious nature to it. I'd rather read a book that swings for the fences, even it results in some misses or whiffs. Ultimately, I just didn't feel it was all there -- the proverbial parts being greater than the whole, so a wobbly round-down to 3 stars. But ask me again tomorrow!(less)

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Oct 21, 2011 Michele Weiner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are some regions of the world that suffer constant wars due to their location at the crossroads of civilizations. The Balkans, like Palestine and Afghanistan, is one of these unhappy places where war is omnipresent. There has not been a generation in Central European/Balkan history that hasn't experienced invasion from without, tribal exterminations from neighbors, and the constant threat of sudden, violent death. The knowledge that war will never end does something to a person. Why strive...more There are some regions of the world that suffer constant wars due to their location at the crossroads of civilizations. The Balkans, like Palestine and Afghanistan, is one of these unhappy places where war is omnipresent. There has not been a generation in Central European/Balkan history that hasn't experienced invasion from without, tribal exterminations from neighbors, and the constant threat of sudden, violent death. The knowledge that war will never end does something to a person. Why strive when you might die at any moment? How to live when neighbors turn on one another without warning and commit unspeakable atrocities that will never be forgotten or forgiven? The Tiger's Wife explores war as well as rituals surrounding death and the role of superstition in helping people deal with fear.

The book takes the form of several interwoven mysteries involving a grandfather's childhood in a remote village threatened one winter by a tiger escaped from the city zoo during a bombing raid. The tiger, an animal that is so foreign to the villagers as to have no name, takes on mythical proportions as they wait through the winter for the Germans who will invade when the snow melts. In part because they fear the tiger, but also to avoid thinking about what awaits them in the spring at the hands of the Germans, the villagers invent fantastic rumors about the tiger and the butcher's wife, who is definitely feeding the half-tame beast in the smokehouse. She is a deaf-mute, the daughter of a Turkish silk merchant and is brutally battered by her husband the butcher, whose most unusual story unfolds as the investigation progresses. The villagers notice her support for the tiger, notice her swelling belly, and decide she is the tiger's wife. The grandfather, whose given name is never told, is the only person in the village wise enough to know that the beast in the forest is called a tiger. He knows this from reading The Jungle Book, which has been given to him by the Apothecary due to his quick intelligence. Grandfather carries the book with him for the rest of his life. He loves the tiger, who reminds him of Shere Khan, killed by Mowgli in one chapter, but resurrected without explanation in later chapters. The tiger's ability to cheat death makes him irresistible to the nine-year-old, who becomes the champion of both the tiger and the deaf-mute girl. The fate of the tiger's wife and grandfather's role in it sets the stage for the rest of his life.

Another second mystery involves the deathless man, whom grandfather meets when he is a young doctor. The man insists he cannot die, and grandfather challenges him, betting him The Jungle Book if he survives a test of his invincibility. When he does survive, grandfather will not pay up. He meets the deathless man several other times through the years. Each time, grandfather learns a little more about the man, and about death.

As the granddaughter works in a remote village, she meets a group of people digging up a vineyard, which leads to an exploration of the death rituals of the Balkan peoples. The rituals involve a 40-day waiting period during which the newly deceased lurks near his body and his possessions for 40 days. His survivors must keep him there by preserving his effects and giving him money. At the end of the waiting period, the deceased goes to the crossroads, where Death escorts him to the next life. If the survivors are not successful in keeping the spirit near his earthly home, he might get lost. Then he will become malignant and harm his relatives. The local villages have a mora who guides the souls to the crossroads, and this is also the function of the deathless man. The granddaughter follows the mora one night and learns his identity.

This book is complex and modern in its structure, and the characters are well drawn for the most part, but the writing is not sophisticated, and reviewers have complained that the book reads as if written for a ten-year-old. I agree, but I think the story worth the effort.

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Oct 04, 2012 Sheila rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

For some reason I really didn't understand this book. It was well enough written, but the varied stories in the book just didn't make sense to me. I don't understand their purpose, I don't understand their meaning, I don't know what was supposed to be real and what was supposed to be just superstition, and I am not sure about some of the many characters, including the Deathless man and the Tiger's wife. In the end, the book mainly just left me confused.

Others may love this though, so take my tho...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Madame X rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In the aftermath of her grandfather Leandro’s death, Natalia seeks to understand what made him tick – and unearths the truth of two of the most important relationships of his life: his boyhood love for the tiger’s wife, and his brief encounters with the deathless man. Meanwhile, we follow Natalia’s movements at the time of Leandro’s death as she travels to a seaside orphanage to deliver vaccines to needy children.

The story of the tiger’s wife takes place in Leandro’s childhood, during World War...more In the aftermath of her grandfather Leandro’s death, Natalia seeks to understand what made him tick – and unearths the truth of two of the most important relationships of his life: his boyhood love for the tiger’s wife, and his brief encounters with the deathless man. Meanwhile, we follow Natalia’s movements at the time of Leandro’s death as she travels to a seaside orphanage to deliver vaccines to needy children.

The story of the tiger’s wife takes place in Leandro’s childhood, during World War II. A tiger escapes from the city zoo in the aftermath of severe bombing and makes its way north, eventually arriving at the tiny country village where Leandro grew up. A deaf-mute girl married to the town butcher feeds it from her husband’s stores. Eventually she is caught when young Leandro spies on her nightly feeding, tarries too long, and his frightened caretaker rouses the village. Forever after, Leandro is in love with the deaf-mute girl and fascinated by the tiger whose fur he briefly touched. The villagers take a different point of view, and organize a hunting party. The deaf-mute girl has tolerated her husband’s savage beatings, but when he returns safe and sound (and unsuccessful) from the tiger hunt, she has had enough. She kills him, and continues to care for the tiger; soon everyone in the village is calling her the tiger’s wife.

The superstitious locals believe the tiger is a devil and when the tiger’s wife turns out to be pregnant, everyone jumps to the conclusion that she is carrying the devil’s baby. Everyone but Leandro ostracizes her. Eventually a famous hunter arrives in town, and the villagers encourage him to kill the tiger-devil lurking in the wilderness. But the tiger’s wife protects her charge. When the hunter finally finds the tiger by following the tiger’s wife as she sneaks out to feed him, Leandro smashes the hunter’s head with a rock before he can shoot.

When the hunter returns to consciousness, he doesn’t remember Leandro – he only remembers the tiger, and the tiger’s wife. The local apothecary thinks the tiger’s wife is dangerous, having killed or injured two men, and decides to take matters into his own hands. He poisons the tiger’s wife with arsenic, which he presents as medicine for the baby she carries. Leandro is by the tiger wife’s side as she dies, and his helplessness inspires his ambition to become a doctor

The story of the deathless man, Gavran Gailé, is much shorter. As a practicing doctor, Leandro meets Gavran Gailé three separate times. At first he thinks Gavran is delusional; but the deathless man is happy to prove that his curse is real. Gavran survives two bullets to the head, and then spends an entire night underwater to show Leandro that in a war-torn country brimming with death, he cannot die. In the deathless man, Leandro – a hyper-rational, modern medical doctor – confronts the impossible, and he is obsessed by it. As his own inevitable end approaches, Leandro’s obsession transforms into attempts to prolong his own life as much as possible.

Natalia believes that her grandfather sought out the deathless man for a fourth meeting on the eve of his death, and she wants to find Gavran Gailé to find out what happened between them. She is not successful.

THE TIGER’S WIFE is set in the former Yugoslavia, but place names are deliberately obscured or omitted. We can guess that Natalia is from Sarajevo, and that she takes her vaccines across the Croatian border, but the author never tells us so. War is a constant presence in the book, always looming in the background and exerting a subtle pressure on the characters. Obreht has a richly descriptive style (she describes the tiger feeding on carrion and relishing “the dense, watery taste of the bloated dead”) and lards the manuscript with imaginative details: the peculiar way a pair of glasses slip off a teacher’s nose, the unique way a roadside burger-slinger flips his meat, the poor plumbing in a village home. She lets one story lead off into the next, and the next after that, capturing something of the human condition while letting the pace of her story slow to a crawl.

I was frustrated by the fact that the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man, never connected in any obvious way. Furthermore, these two stories from Leandro’s past are also separate from the story of Natalia’s visit to the orphanage. While there is a moment when Natalia thinks she has found the deathless man, she is wrong. Natalia, as the narrator, tells the reader that it wasn’t until years after her grandfather’s death that she pieced together the story of the tiger’s wife, so her side-trip to the orphanage doesn’t constitute a putative present time. While each of the three main narrative threads in the novel is interesting, they remain separate. I also never had the impression that Natalia was personally changed by the discoveries she made about her grandfather.

There are many people who would love this book for its excellent writing and rich detail. Personally, I would have liked a more solid core of ideas to take away from it. (less)

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Oct 17, 2012 Jacquelynn Luben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a strange mixture. It seems like anecdotes strung together with no real connections. Bits that are down to earth and other parts that seem more related to superstition, myth, the fantastical and the magical.

Natalia is a young doctor on a quest to treat and innoculate some children from a war-torn Balkan country. There is a certain amount of back story about her own medical tuition together with that of her friend. She also wants to find out more about her grandfather's death, and relates...more This is a strange mixture. It seems like anecdotes strung together with no real connections. Bits that are down to earth and other parts that seem more related to superstition, myth, the fantastical and the magical.

Natalia is a young doctor on a quest to treat and innoculate some children from a war-torn Balkan country. There is a certain amount of back story about her own medical tuition together with that of her friend. She also wants to find out more about her grandfather's death, and relates his stories, of which the two are main threads in the book, that of the tiger's 'wife' and of the deathless man. Her grandfather who has an affinity with animals and whose affection for the tiger goes back to his reading of The Jungle Book, had a close relationship with the eponymous young woman. She is a deaf mute, battered by her husband and mistreated by everyone, but the grandfather as a young boy is kind to her.

Perhaps I should have realised, when I saw listed at the back, the book, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, that I would find a connection with magic realism. Nevertheless, I wasn’t prepared for it and it was quite a surprise when I came to it. The plot appeared to be fairly straightforward, initially, and suddenly I was plunged into the tale told by the heroine’s grandfather of his first encounter with the deathless man. As it got more and more outrageous by the minute (getting me laughing, at one point, I must admit), I became fairly sure that this must be magical realism.

Even if I am correct in this assumption, it was not so much that which I found difficult with this book. My problem was more with the fragmented writing - the jumping from one bit of the plot to another bit - the numerous characters - some of whom seemed to have no real function and some of whom were instantly forgettable - and the lack of depth to these characters, in the main. In general, I could only really relate to Natalia, her grandfather, and possibly Gavran Gaile, (the deathless man) who seemed to have more of a sense of humour than everyone else.

I did not like the sudden introduction of potted biographies of some of the characters, although my problem with the story of Luka, which I quite enjoyed, was that I found it unbelievable, in the light of the later drastic change of personality. The story of the apothecary came far too late, in the day. Some stories never really got resolved. Of course, one might say that it is in the nature of a country torn by war, for this novel is set in two periods of war-time - WW2 and the Balkan War of more recent time - that stories are unresolved. One might also say that the author, with her prize-winning novel, created a history and anthropology of a country torn apart by war, hiding from the truth of death with superstition. One should also remember that this offering is from a very young author.

I am probably rather traditional, or conservative, in my likes, wanting a clear structure and a clear plot. If, you, like me, appreciate a certain logical form to your books, then perhaps this is not for you. However, if you want something where one story blends into another, and the story of the moment is the only important one, then perhaps this has something to offer.
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Oct 01, 2012 SilverRaindrops rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: magical-realism, 2012-around-the-world-in-52-books, rating-5stars-fiction-nf, reviewstatus-reviewed, favourites-read-2012, region-europe, country-serbia

I bought "The Tiger's Wife" out of an impulse - I needed an author starting with O, I liked magical realism, the back blurb seemed quite interesting.

I have managed to stay completely objective for an entire half page - then I understood that a book starting with a visit to the zoo, with animals, myths, cultural history and a place that has fascinated me for a long time all featuring quite highly, had no choice but to turn out amazing for me.

Ignoring the myths for a while, Téa Obreth does an am...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't believe this is Obreht's first novel. It is really really good.

When Obreht's name was announced on the New Yorker's '20 under 40' list, a lot of people complained about it. The complaints were of three varities: 1) misogyny (I read someone who denounced her as a "Barbie look-alike", which she isn't. But even if she was, what does that have to do with her writing?), 2) that she didn't have enough published work (no novels yet, only short stories), or 3) that she was a token 'young person'...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Sally rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cover-to-cover-2012, to-read-in-2012

I'm not even sure where to go with this one. I have had it on my TBR shelf as it has been listed as a monthly read in so many groups. However, it seemed to take forever to get through.

The story takes place in the Balkans, in which civil warhas left that region very much in need. Natalia works as a doctor and is out to help children get the medical support they require at the same time that she is dealing with the death of her grandfather, with whom she was very close.

The storyline jets from pres...more

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May 09, 2013 Randie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, adult-fiction, historical-fiction, a-z-challenge-2012

*Updated review.

Obreht, T. (2011). The tiger’s wife. New York, NY: Random House.

*I received this book as a first reads winner on goodreads.

Natalia, a doctor, shares stories that she remembers from her grandfather as she goes on a journey of her own to better understand her deceased grandfather and the fable of the tiger’s wife.

I was thrilled to begin reading this book because the premise of the story was enticing, touching, and I was interested in the bond between Natalia and her deceased grandf...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, death-and-dying, european-literature, folklore-fairytale-legend, magical-realism

While praising Obreht for writing with great lyrical force, some have criticized her for writing a disjointed novel. I disagree. Her novel's central question asks, "How do people respond to death?" The setting is the Balkans, an area with complex histories and cultures -- all wrestling with death in one form or another: death from disease, from poverty and from violence both small within the walls of a family's home or large-scale as with air raid bombing. Death stalks the people of the Balkans...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Diane Prokop rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In "The Tiger’s Wife”, Tea Obreht tackles the twin and interwoven themes of war and death with a mixture of lore, fable and myth. The war, although never identified, is the Balkan conflict of the nineties and Obreht pointedly never identifies real towns or landmarks instead preferring to use made-up names. In that way, she is able to imagine the country where the war takes place without having to tie the plot to real events or people. She can distill the rituals and vagaries of war into the jou...more In "The Tiger’s Wife”, Tea Obreht tackles the twin and interwoven themes of war and death with a mixture of lore, fable and myth. The war, although never identified, is the Balkan conflict of the nineties and Obreht pointedly never identifies real towns or landmarks instead preferring to use made-up names. In that way, she is able to imagine the country where the war takes place without having to tie the plot to real events or people. She can distill the rituals and vagaries of war into the journeys of her characters more freely without having to rein in her imagination.
And it’s her imagination that really shines for she is masterful at creating the backdrop for the story of her two main characters. It begins with a young doctor Natalia, the narrator, remembering her relationship with her grandfather, also a doctor, and his life growing up amid war. She learns of his death as she journeys 400 miles to a village where she will inoculate young children. He has “died alone, on a trip away from home ... in a clinic in an obscure town called Zdrevkor on the other side of the border.”
The plot unfolds as Natalia tries to discover why her grandfather has died so far from home in a village that she has never heard of and why no one knew of his true intentions. Along the way, she encounters death in many forms: bodies being dug up in vineyards, bodies needed for scientific dissection, skulls of those long dead, and all the other detritus of a land sucked into the vacuum of a war created by leaders looking out for their own interests instead of for the citizens they supposedly represent.
Obreht weaves in fascinating cultural lore as in the Forty Days of the Soul that begin on the morning after death to encourage the soul to “return with a message, with a sign, or with forgiveness.” The fable of a tiger and the woman who loved it “so much she almost became one herself” is riveting and along with the myth of the deathless man who is condemned to live forever are “everything necessary to understand my grandfather” Natalia says early on.
With all the various narrative threads, The Tiger’s Wife is certainly a gargantuan effort. For the most part, Obreht achieves her goal. The first part of the story entices the reader in through compelling dialogue and scene setting. The forward momentum gets a little bogged down in the middle when we are immersed into the past through flashbacks of Natalia’s grandfather recounting the tiger fable and the myth of the deathless man. The endless exposition and sparse dialogue almost run away with the book but happily Obreht picks up speed again and lunges into a very satisfying ending.
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Aug 10, 2011 Justine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 02, 2012 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: orange-prize, national-book-award-nominees, around-the-world, location-croatia, location-yugoslavia, read2012

This is the first book I read for my Around the World challenge, and what a way to start. The reason I have both Yugoslavia and Croatia listed is that the locations are intentionally unnamed or made up throughout the novel. Obreht does this on purpose to disassociate story from place, since so much of the turmoil in that area of the world is caused by family name endings and minor differences.

The story is about two generations of doctors in a family - the grandfather and the granddaughter, and a...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Mark B rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is always interesting to read the first-time novelist who is already highly regarded as a story writer. Is s/he able to make the transition to the long form?

The Tiger's Wife comprises a varied set of interesting stories. The writing is often exquisite. (I didn't feel the same way about most of the dialogue, but maybe that's just me). Each story has its own drama, tension and style. As a group, the stories will hold particular appeal for fans of Magical Realism, especially with a Balkan flavo...more

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How did the grandfather die?	2	59	16 hours, 24 min ago
The deathless man?	23	848	Apr 17, 2013 07:13am
Worthwhile or ridiculous?	20	237	Jan 25, 2013 05:24pm
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About Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and spent her childhood in Cyprus and Egypt before eventually immigrating to the United States in 1997. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Zoetrope: All-Story, The New York Times, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Non-Required Reading. Her...more

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“When your fight has purpose—to free you from something, to interfere on the behalf of an innocent—it has a hope of finality. When the fight is about unraveling—when it is about your name, the places to which your blood is anchored, the attachment of your name to some landmark or event—there is nothing but hate, and the long, slow progression of people who feed on it and are fed it, meticulously, by the ones who come before them. Then the fight is endless, and comes in waves and waves, but always retains its capacity to surprise those who hope against it.” — 38 people liked it

“Come on, is your heart a sponge or a fist?” — 30 people liked it

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