The Tiger's Wife ~ Tea Obreht

Last month, the Huffington Post launched an online book club which I eagerly joined.

The first selection was Tea Obreht’s novel The Tiger’s Wife. I don’t think I would have ever picked up this book to read on my own, but because I wanted to take part in the book club, I read it.

It’s a tough book to summarize, so I’m going to steal the summary from Publishers Weekly.

“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, who raised her on tales from the village he grew up in, and where, following German bombardment in 1941, a tiger escaped from the zoo in a nearby city and befriended a mysterious deaf-mute woman. The evolving story of the tiger's wife, as the deaf-mute becomes known, forms one of three strands that sustain the novel, the other two being Natalia's efforts to care for orphans and a wayward family who, to lift a curse, are searching for the bones of a long-dead relative; and several of her grandfather's stories about Gavran Gailé, the deathless man, whose appearances coincide with catastrophe and who may hold the key to all the stories that ensnare Natalia.”

I finished reading The Tiger’s Wife a few days ago, but I’m still trying to figure out if I liked it or not. It is quite different from the books I usually read, which may be clouding my ability to make a judgment, and the ending was not what I had hoped for, but it's worth reading for the stories of the deathless man, a fascinating character.

The novel as a whole is rather disjointed, jumping back and forth in place and time - almost like a book of tied-together short stories, but is still well-written. I won't criticize too much since the author is only 26 years old.

If you are looking for a mostly serious and gloomy, sometimes violent  book, check this one out.

And join the book club. I linked to it at the top of the page. February's selection is Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton.