The Tiger's Wife in Around the World

May 09, 2011 Emma Lou rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, contemporary-fiction, read-in-2012

While working as a Doctor across the boarder in her recently divided country, Natalia receives the news that her Grandfather has died. As she comes to terms with his death, Natalia tries to piece together her grandfathers life story, the circumstances of his death, and how a deaf-mute girl and a tiger seemingly lifted straight from the pages of The Jungle Book, helped to shape his life.

The story is told in alternating chapters; one from the present where Natalia is trying to bring valuable medic While working as a Doctor across the boarder in her recently divided country, Natalia receives the news that her Grandfather has died. As she comes to terms with his death, Natalia tries to piece together her grandfathers life story, the circumstances of his death, and how a deaf-mute girl and a tiger seemingly lifted straight from the pages of The Jungle Book, helped to shape his life.

The story is told in alternating chapters; one from the present where Natalia is trying to bring valuable medical supplies to an orphanage while her grandmother berates her for not coming home sooner, and the other from what Natalia’s grandfather told her about his life and growing up in a village in a former Balkan state. At the beginning of the book I found the sudden shift in perspective quite clumsy and confusing. But soon it became clear that the stories were intermingling and had more things in common than you first thought.

The links come from the use of folk tales in relation to death that are repeated and strengthened throughout; the deathless man that finds his way from stories before the Second World War to Natalia’s present, the thought that a restless spirit can cause illness and death within the remains of the living family and the first belief expressed in the book where a dead person’s belonging must remain untouched for 40 days after their death. People believed these tales; they shaped their lives and behaviors. I think Natalia’s character finds it hard to understand how a scientific man like her Grandfather (a Doctor no less), could grow up believing such tales. However the pragmatic Natalia finds herself undergoing a change of heart after witnessing the effects of other people’s faith.

The character of the Tiger’s Wife is captured brilliantly in the cover image; no more than a girl, who’s led a hard life and yet is not afraid of this mysterious animal that everyone else in the village thinks is the devil. This imagery is rather apt as the girl’s husband is more of a devil than the tiger, who confused at finding himself far away from the confines of the zoo he has grown up in, seeks out the comfort of humans.

I did find this book a little strange at the beginning and couldn’t see where the plot was going. However about a third of the way in, a thread of the story began to unravel and I found myself captivated and eager to discover the story behind the Tiger’s Wife. It is not hard to see why (well for me anyway), this book won the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011. I eagerly await to see what else come from Teà Obreht in the future.
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Sep 20, 2011 Kate Z rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really don't get the hype on this book. The descriptive writing is really good - but it failed for me as a story. I didn't feel particularly connected to the underlying story/setting of the break up of (the former) Yugoslavia or the tensions therein. A few of the sub-plots (deathless man, the bear guy and, to some extent the story of the tigers wife) would have been interesting short stories. I didn't have a problem with the magical realism aspect of the novel; I just wasn't compelled by the n ...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Suzanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-2013, fiction

“My grandfather never refers to the tiger’s wife by name. His arm is around me and my feet are on the handrail, and my grandfather might say, ‘I once knew a girl who loved tigers so much she almost became one herself.’ Because I am little, and my love of tigers comes directly from him, I believe he is talking about me, offering me a fairy tale in which I can imagine myself – and will, for years and years.”

The tale told to his granddaughter Natalia, is a sweeping narrative of war and humanity. T ...more

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May 04, 2011 Hesper rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 20th-century, balkans

Some books are promises that future stories will succeed where the present ones faltered. The Tiger's Wife is this kind of novel: solid prose propping up a meandering story that is thematically incomplete.

Although weaving several stories together and letting the gestalt image convey a larger idea can work, it only succeeds if the interlocking of the individual parts is damn near perfect. The separate narrative strands of this novel struggle to come together into a seamless narrative whole, in sp ...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Kris Fernandez-Everett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

absolutely brilliant... i've read deeply over the years about 'yugoslavia' -- history from pan-slavism in the 19th century forward through what happened in the 90s -- and if i could have stated artistically what i thought was at the root of so much of the history, i could only have hoped it would have read as 'the tiger's wife'... i haven't cried at the ending of a book in a while, but i did with this one... read it... ...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Diane Nagatomo rated it liked it · review of another edition

I quite enjoyed this book to a certain extent, but somehow I felt there was some lack of cohesion between the book&s sub-stories and the thread of the main story. I found it a bit difficult to follow at times.

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May 26, 2012 Annie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I finished this book and immediately started it again. I never, ever do that. I feel a little confused - but not really in a bad way. Obreht's writing style was deceptively complex - I found myself skimming along, only to realize I'd missed something important. Can't wait to talk about it with my book group! ...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Carmen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good read

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Oct 09, 2012 Jenna Garrett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world, eastern-europe

I loved this book, and how Obreht wove folktales into the telling of Natalia's relationship with her grandfather and her grief at his loss. Simple and sweet storytelling. <3

[Around the world - Serbia] ...more

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May 04, 2011 Caroline marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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May 19, 2011 Amanda marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: wishlist

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Jul 01, 2011 Kirsty rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Jul 26, 2011 ij marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

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Sep 02, 2011 Priya marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world

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Sep 16, 2011 Amber marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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Oct 12, 2011 Rita rated it liked it · review of another edition

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Nov 27, 2011 Nicholas Beck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Dec 29, 2011 Dee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: top-shelf, cultural-living, recommendable, historical-fiction, realistic-biography, war, adventure, read-2012, era-1970s-and-on, atw-europe-crotia

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