The Tiger's Wife in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

May 31, 2019 Kris Springer rated it it was amazing

This is a book to sit with and ponder for a while. It's a fascinating mix of fable/parable and real life story and historical fiction. Obreht's family is from the former Yugoslavia, and this book touches on the regional conflicts that led to the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Natalia, the narrator, has little to do with the action; the protagonist is her grandfather, and Natalia relates his childhood fascination with tigers, with The Jungle Book by Kipling, and with the tiger's wife. This book This is a book to sit with and ponder for a while. It's a fascinating mix of fable/parable and real life story and historical fiction. Obreht's family is from the former Yugoslavia, and this book touches on the regional conflicts that led to the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Natalia, the narrator, has little to do with the action; the protagonist is her grandfather, and Natalia relates his childhood fascination with tigers, with The Jungle Book by Kipling, and with the tiger's wife. This book is like a hole into the center of the earth that you can fall through--you can read the book straight, as it's told, but you can also follow the tangents to understand more of the novel--the history of the region, starting even before WW1 (WW1 started in this area when Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was murdered in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb national). I've never understood the deep hatreds involved in this region between the different factions but this novel gave me the beginnings of an understanding.

You can also follow the fables Obreht tells (are they regional folktales?) about the Tiger's Wife, as well as the Deathless Man. So many threads, a tapestry in this book.

Throughout, Natalia's grandfather is a heroic figure, striving to understand his life, other people's motivations, and he learns how to follow his own conscience. There are so many ways to read and understand this book, and it almost begs to be re-read--or at least to read some critical analyses of it, in order to find some pieces that escaped my notice. This is a book that stretches the reader, that teaches about human motivations, whether inspiring or reprehensible, and about how to live a life of dignity in the face of immorality. This book also places the reader in a place where they won't understand everything, and that's okay--the sense of mystery, about life, about our planet, about everything, imbues the book. Questions are sometimes all we have.

One of the most amazing elements is that the author published this when she was 25; she is now only 33, and her 2nd book, Inland, is being published this fall. ...more

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Jun 18, 2013 Joanna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, 2013-read, rws-2014-winter

I'm closing out 2013 with a book I just didn't really like. So many people loved this debut novel, but I found it scattered and dull. The folk tales mostly distracted from the story, and the characters just meandered along. The author was able to write evocative descriptions of certain scenes, but the book as a whole never came together. Perhaps this book just didn't translate well to audio format. I found the narrators' voices fine, but not memorable and perhaps the switching around of perspect ...more

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Mar 03, 2012 jess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook-d, fiction, 2012, ladyish, 2012-tob

This book has gotten a lot of attention and it's hard for me to write much about it without feeling redundant. There are a lot of layers in the storytelling, and the characters are intertwined through the complex narrative. This provides a lot of opportunity for many discoveries for the attentive reader - What would I give to discover again that Gavran Gaile's wife was a gusla player from Sarobor !!! The triumph! The surprise! I loved the experience of reading The Tiger's Wife. There is all this ...more

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Apr 26, 2021 Kristin rated it really liked it

Shelves: popsugar-2021

My choice for the Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt 'A book that has won the Women's Prize for Fiction', 'The Tiger's Wife' is likely a book that I would have never come across otherwise. Obreht tells the story of Natalia, a young doctor in a war-torn nation that was likely part of Yugoslavia before the wars, whose grandfather is also a physician and her role model. While on the way to an orphanage to treat the children there, Natalia learns her grandfather has passed away. He told his wife and My choice for the Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt 'A book that has won the Women's Prize for Fiction', 'The Tiger's Wife' is likely a book that I would have never come across otherwise. Obreht tells the story of Natalia, a young doctor in a war-torn nation that was likely part of Yugoslavia before the wars, whose grandfather is also a physician and her role model. While on the way to an orphanage to treat the children there, Natalia learns her grandfather has passed away. He told his wife and daughter (Natalia's mom) that he was going to visit Natalia, but she is unaware of this plan and is unfamiliar with the town where he died. What she did know was that her grandfather was seriously ill and had sworn her to secrecy.
Obreht seamlessly flips back and forth between the current story, of Natalia trying to figure out why her grandfather actually went to this other town despite his sickness, and the 2 stories Natalia's grandfather shared with her as she grew up and their bond became ironclad, both of which connect to the worn copy of 'The Jungle Book' that Grandpa always carries inside his coat.
Yugoslavia fell apart while I was in grade school and I'll admit to not knowing much about that portion of the world and its history, so it was interesting to me to read a work of fiction set there, written by a native author whose upbringing likely included similar stories and legends as the ones shared by Natalia's grandfather in addition to the tradition being followed when Natalia reaches the orphanage and sees a whole family digging up the nearby orchard. There were occasions when I wasn't quite sure which plotline we were in, whether it was one of Grandpa's old stories, Natalia's reflections on her youth, or the current day, particularly when it came to tigers, as they factored heavily in the two older timelines.
Whether I read another book by Obreht will depend on the summary, as I chose this one because Natalia and her grandfather were both doctors, so the subject matter will be key. ...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Beth rated it really liked it

I just finished and feel like I'll be thinking about this book for a while. It took some time to really get into the story. The writing is amazing, beautiful, flowing and fluid. But the story felt like it floated in front of me, gently nudging me on rather than truly engaging me. Maybe I prefer tales that reach out and tackle you.
But i kept readin and as the story went on I felt myself drawn in more and growing more attached to the characters especially Natalia and her grandfather. Some of the ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Molly rated it liked it

Loved the writing but I just never really got into this one. I want to try again though as the idea of the story is still fascinating to me.

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Nov 22, 2018 Cari rated it really liked it

A wonderful story about a woman and her relationship with her grandfather that weaves together myth and memory. Animals play an interesting role, providing a different perspective on the human drama. Some of my favorite passages are in the tiger's head. ...more

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