the tiger's wife review

Kapka Kassabova on a novel that mythologises Yugoslavia's history, n the surreal and yet all-too-real opening scene of Emir Kusturica's 1995 film. No real places or persons are named: Tito is "the Marshall", Belgrade is "the City", and we are in "a Balkan country still scarred by war". “None of my friends will ever believe it,” she exclaims in regret. As his vision joins hers, old and new memories collide in a vibrant collage that has no date, no dateline. The first confrontation between Natalia's grandfather and Gavo offered an early example of this feature of the narrative; the confrontation between Natalia … But it's similar to the content of fairy tales (the unexpurgated versions) and meant to be symbolic of what the country and its people have lived through. Filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand, “The Tiger’s Wife” is all the more remarkable for being the product not of observation but of imagination. He was a native of Galina and just a boy when the tiger appeared. The zoo was bombed again in Natalia's own time, the 1990s. With fables and allegories, as well as events borrowed from the headlines, she illustrates the complexities of Balkan history, unearthing patterns of suspicion, superstition and everyday violence that pervade the region even in times of peace. Natalia says that the key to her grandfather’s life and death “lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man.”. It was published in 2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a British imprint of Orion Books, and by Random House in America. Ingeniously, Obreht juxtaposes Natalia’s matter-of-fact narration with contemporary folk tales that are as simple, enthralling and sometimes brutal as fables by Kipling or Dinesen. And it is during this same raid that the tiger of Téa Obreht's debut novel escapes to the hills above the fictional village of Galina. Still, the family that plays host to the doctors treats them to a generous feast and takes care not to mention politics, religion or family matters. Sensible, educated Natalia finds that she can’t scorn their conviction. Obreht was the youngest winner of the prize to date, winning at age 25. “You must be joking,” her grandfather replies, rebuking her: “The story of this war — dates, names, who started it, why — that belongs to everyone. Obreht has prodigious talent for storytelling and imagery, so it seems only a matter of time before she writes something truly great. . They give something to the living. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-tigers-wife-by-tea-obreht.html. And her narrator, in retelling the experiences of her grandfather’s generation, enfolds them into her own. It's there when the grandfather is tipped off by Serbian mercenaries about their plan to bomb the Muslim-dominated town of Sarobor (read Mostar of the destroyed bridge), and instead of getting out of there fast, he goes to an old restaurant, where a poignantly polite waiter serves him a last feast. In the surreal and yet all-too-real opening scene of Emir Kusturica's 1995 film Underground, the Nazis bomb Belgrade zoo, causing the panicked animals to run for their lives. But they are also one of the problems: after meeting innumerable exotic characters, it dawned on me that the back-stories stand in for a story, and style stands in for emotion. Obreht's – and Natalia's – real journey is back in time, and the real investigation here is of the difficult times, violent death and crippled afterlife of that mythical place once called Yugoslavia. This was 60 years ago, the narrator Natalia tells us, but the complicated story of what happened to the tiger and the people of Galina lives on. Who deserves to hear it?” Chastened, Natalia asks if he has other stories “like that,” stories “from before.” The question will transform her into a bard herself. Obreht's delicate unfolding of Natalia's grandfather's past presents a multi-dimensional view of a man Natalia believed she knew. . He remembers his life here with his Bosnian wife, he bids farewell to the old Yugoslavia, and muses that "my name, your name, her name. The zoo closes, and a curfew is imposed. Feel free to purchase these books from The Book Depository using my affiliate link so I can use the proceeds to buy even more books! Its graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend … But the real delirium – and the real emotion – doesn't lie in the stories of tiger-men, bear-men, deathless men and their consorts. It feels weird to think that a 25-year-old novelist could have all that much to lose in a debut. The Tigers Wife I should first note that I started out with some high hopes for The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht. After all, her grandfather always carried a copy of Kipling’s “Jungle Book” in his breast pocket. Natalia has followed in her grandfather's steps and become a doctor in "the City". Téa Obreht tells stories like a Balkan Scheherazade. What power do the stories we tell about ourselves have to shape our identity and help us understand our lives? None of these appear in Téa Obreht’s first novel, “The Tiger’s Wife,” yet in its pages she brings their historic and human context to luminous life. Parsons 1Catie IngersollNatalie ZimmermanSophie KennenBrandon QiaoCaelan Ritter It’s on the drive back from this detour that Natalia recalls her grandfather’s story of Luka. Here’s what I like about Téa Obreht’s debut novel, “The Tiger’s Wife”: Obreht can write. Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the 1980s, and her family left just as the war broke out, eventually settling in the US. Tea Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife is a brilliant modern fable. Anyone in the US with even a passing interest in contemporary fiction has by now heard the ovations given to Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife. The Tiger's Wife is a frisky tiger cub chasing its tail – it covers a lot of ground, growls a lot, and never quite gets there, but we have fun along the way. The story got built up in my mind after reading her second novel Inland , and then attending a pre-covid signing event where Obreht talked about revisiting the same themes in her books. Natalia and her friends immerse themselves in “the mild lawlessness” that surrounds them. The Tiger’s Wife is the first novel by Serbian-born American author, Tea Obrecht, and is the winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction. The key to her grandfather's life and death "lies between two stories: the story of the tiger's wife, and the story of the deathless man". It's now rekindled by the death of Natalia's beloved grandfather. Soon after the war, the adult Natalia adds to this trove as she travels with a fellow doctor on a mercy mission to a town across the new border to inoculate orphans — orphans who have been created, she knows, “by our own soldiers.” “Twelve years ago,” she explains, “before the war, the people of Brejevina had been our people.” Back then, crossing borders was a formality, but now an unwary welcome is out of the question. He has been her constant companion – their weekly visit to the city zoo was a ritual. Young doctor, Natalia Stefanovic is on an assignment with her life-long friend Zora to innoculate the children of a remote Balkan village orphanage when she learns of her grandfather’s death. “Filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand, The Tiger’s Wife is all the more remarkable for being the product not of observation but of imagination.”—The New York Times Book Review “That The Tiger’s Wife never slips entirely into magical realism is part of its magic. Book by TÉA OBREHT Reviewed by ELIZABETH BYRNE. Not just the people involved in it, but the people who write newspapers, politicians thousands of miles away, people who’ve never even been here or heard of it before. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of “The Tiger's Wife” by Tea Obreht. Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in 1985 but left at the age of 7, before the major conflict took hold. The Tiger's Wife rests securely in the genre of magical realism, inciting comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and even Kafka. You have to think carefully about where you tell it, and to whom. The Tiger's Wife is, on the surface, a tale of one woman's search for the truth behind her beloved grandfather's death, but the implications of this search are fundamental to the way we make sense of life and death. He never parted with his copy of The Jungle Book, not even when a mysterious stranger dubbed "the deathless man" won it in a bet to prove his immortality to the rational doctor. In terms of structure and pacing, Obreht still has a … She lived in Cyprus and Egypt, then moved to the United States in 1997. As a little girl, Natalia adored her grandfather, a respected doctor and professor, and tagged along on his regular visits to the zoo, which was formerly a sultan’s fortress. In “The Tiger’s Wife,” Obreht weaves the old man’s richly colored reminiscences like silk ribbons through the spare frame of Natalia’s modern coming-of-age, a coming-of-age that coincides, as her grandfather’s had, with a time of political upheaval. But the scariness is visceral, a world that's like a dangerous and even fatal grid, an electrified fence. The Tiger’s Wife By Téa Obreht Random House 338 pp. It takes place in a small, remote village during WWII and explains how the grandfather first became obsessed with tigers. She prefers Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The first tells the story of a young doctor’s quest to retrieve her dead grandfather’s personal effects from a war-ravaged region somewhere in the former Yugoslavia. The tiger who gave the “tiger’s wife” her name was real too: he made his way to Galina in 1941, spooked by bombs that fell on a Balkan city. Share Tweet Email Print. Natalia likes to see herself as somebody with an edge: too rational to be cowed by old-fashioned superstitions, too modern for corny old-fashioned folk music. In fact, she has family rites of her own to attend to, a detour she must make to placate her grandmother. But there is a sorrow that sometimes undercuts the flights of fancy, and this saves The Tiger's Wife from being a freak show. The book is short on characterization—this is Atwood, never a warm writer, at her steeliest—and long on cynicism—it's got none of the human credibility of a work such as Walker Percy's Love In The Ruins. Think back to the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, with their profusion of names that are difficult to pronounce and acts that are painful to recall: the massacres at Brcko and Srebrenica, the bombing of bread lines in Sarajevo, the destruction of Mostar’s 400-year-old bridge. The Tiger's Wife is the debut novel of Serbian-American writer Téa Obreht. To his granddaughter, he was a fount of fantasy, her own private bard. Although his gift is for lyrics rather than music, “there are those who say that any man who heard Luka play the gusla, even in wordless melody, was immediately moved to tears.” When a woman asks why he doesn’t prefer an instrument with a greater number of strings, he responds, “Fifty strings sing one song, but this single string knows a thousand stories.”. NOW AVAILABLE !! The puzzle is Yugoslavia itself. After following him through dark, empty streets, suddenly she sees what he sees: an elephant, a refugee from a defunct circus, being walked to the city’s embattled zoo. In the end, all you want is someone to long for you when it comes time to put you in the ground.". It belongs only to you. Trotting out these accolades feels like hobbling her with expectations, but The Tiger’s Wife, her debut novel written on a creative writing course at Cornell University, is dauntlessly composed. And me. Obreht's imagination is seductively extravagant and prone to folkloric hyperbole, and this makes parts of the novel read like a picaresque romp through some enchanted Balkan kingdom, rife with magic, murder and mayhem. On hearing of his death, she takes us on a labyrinthine journey to investigate. The Tiger's Wife depicts the relationship between Natalia, a young medical professional living in a country in the Balkans, and her grandfather, a celebrated doctor who has recently passed away.Obreht's novel begins with a memory of Natalia and her grandfather visiting the city zoo to see the tigers--a routine of theirs in Natalia's childhood. . Full Review “The dead are celebrated. . The novel interweaves three compelling narratives. The Tiger's Wife. . . Kapka Kassabova's novel Villa Pacifica will be published by Alma Books in August. I’m so glad that I did. . A decade after World War I, Luka leaves Galina and walks 300 miles to the river port of Sarobor, where he hopes to master the gusla, a single-stringed Balkan folk instrument. The Tiger's Wife A Novel Téa Obreht The plot of this novel plays out through a web of stories. Obreht won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction for The Tiger's Wife. “Filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand, The Tiger’s Wife is all the more remarkable for being the product not of observation but of imagination.”—The New York Times Book Review “That The Tiger’s Wife never slips entirely into magical realism is part of its magic. John Wilwol reviews Tea Obreht’s new novel, The Tiger’s Wife, which vibrates with the low rumble of unanswered and unanswerable questions that keeps us up at night. . For most of us, the war and subsequent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s conjures memories of shaky news footage and the echoes of faraway landmine explosions. . Then the sky turns red with fire and the real law of the jungle comes to town. The Tiger's Wife Summary & Study Guide includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis, quotes, character descriptions, themes, and more. March 29, 2011 Reviews. After Luka died from what is believed to have been the tiger, his wife became known as “the tiger’s wife” and she is known to frequent a barn where the tiger has been seen. The Tiger's Wife Summary and Study Guide. The story of the Tiger’s Wife is a tale from the childhood of the narrator’s grandfather. The title story, The Tiger's Wife, is perhaps a little too filled with pathos. “Past the aviary where the sharp-eared owls sleep,” they would walk to the moat where tigers loped, their “stripe-lashed shoulders rolling.” There she would listen, rapt, as her grandfather spoke of a girl he once knew who was known as the “tiger’s wife.” At the time, Natalia thought this was a fairy tale. But late one night, missing the old man, she agrees to follow him on a wild goose chase whose purpose he won’t explain. The deliberate way in which it unspools is entrancing, like a languorous evening spent spinning tales over glasses of homemade rakija, the fruit brandy that everyone drinks in the Balkans. In other words, she did not live in the former Yugoslavia during the war-torn years this book revisits. Among other things, this means spurning her grandfather and dating a young tough who sells black-market contraband. It's found in the students of medicine in the war-stricken "City" trying to get skulls on the black market. THE TIGER'S WIFE is legendary, a story made up of smaller stories that, when taken together, becomes a complicated account of war intertwined with local village lore. I think the author reveals her youth here by making the violence and the abuse the characters suffer extreme, horrific. Throughout The Tiger's Wife, Obreht aggressively contrasts forces such as science and mythology, or rationalism and superstition. The deathless man is presented as a key piece in the puzzle, along with the bear-man, the tormented butcher-musician, his long-suffering and deaf Muslim wife who becomes the tiger's wife for reasons too complicated to explain here, and a whole menagerie of other rural Balkan curiosities whose stories are embroidered by a collective genius of superstition. Encapsulating "The Tiger's Wife" in a single phrase or sentence is impossible. In the woods above her grandfather’s village, Natalia tells us, the sound of the animal still vibrates amid the trees, a “tight note that falls and falls.” Arrestingly, Obreht shows that you don’t have to go back centuries to find history transformed into myth; the process can occur within a lifetime if a gifted observer is on hand to record it. Arriving there, he finds that gusla music is nearly forgotten, overtaken by rollicking modern tunes played by lusty, boisterous bands. In “The Tiger’s Wife,” Obreht weaves the old man’s richly colored reminiscences like silk ribbons through the spare frame of Natalia’s modern coming-of-age, a … Reaching back to World War II, and then to wars that came before, she reveals the continuity beneath the clangor. 1. Téa Obreht's "The Tiger's Wife" comes freighted with more critical anticipation than any debut novel in recent memory. Tea Obreht’s swirling first novel, “ The Tiger’s Wife,” draws us beneath the clotted tragedies in the Balkans to deliver the kind of truth that histories can’t touch. But I have to believe that I would have eventually read … The wolves ate their cubs, and the tiger, called Zbogom or Farewell, ate his own legs: a powerful metaphor for Serbia-Yugoslavia devouring her own children. The Tiger's Wife and Balkan Zoology June 11, 2012 - By Pedja Jurišić “Violence was, indeed, all I knew of the Balkans: all I knew of the South Slavs.” Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. The Tiger's Wife. The brilliant black comedy and matryoshka-style narrative are among the novel's great joys. A metaphor for the author’s achievement can be found in her tale of Luka, a dreamy, brooding butcher’s son from a mountain village called Galina. By this time, though, she has learned that neither Luka nor the tiger’s wife were characters from fairy tales. The dead are loved. Once you put something into the ground, Doctor, you always know where to find it.” I read The Tiger’s Wife *now* because I’m making my way through all the previous Women’s Prize winners for their #ReadingWomen challenge, and it won in 2011. Its graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend seems even more … The Tiger's Wife is a frisky tiger cub chasing its tail – it covers a lot of ground, growls a lot, and never quite gets there, but we have fun along the way. Who cares, it's all a fable about a war – no, several wars – in some unnamed land. When Natalia is a teenager, war returns to the Balkans. A humanist schooled in the old tradition, he remained loyal to his patients even after he was expelled from the university for political reasons. by Téa Obreht. They have come to Brejevina to right that wrong and expunge the curse. The principal collector of Obreht’s multiplicity of stories is her narrator, Natalia Stefanovic, a young doctor who lives with her mother, grandmother and grandfather in an unnamed Balkan city early in the 21st century. Review: The Tiger’s Wife . But something like this — this is yours. 4.5 Stars It’s been around eight years since I read Téa Obreht’s debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, but the fact that I loved the beautiful writing and the story had been enough incentive for me to request this second novel, Inland. The butcher of Galina, Luka, had a wife who was known as “the deaf-mute girl,” a wife he subjected to vicious beatings. The Tiger's Wife A deathless man and a woman who loved tigers star in one of the most highly anticipated books of 2011. The novel interweaves three compelling narratives. Nor do they explain the presence of a band of strange, sickly people roaming their property, digging holes day and night. Still, he seeks out old men who know the traditional songs, falls under the spell of the “throbbing wail of their voices winding through tales remembered or invented” and acquires their art. What the novel lacks in emotional depth, it makes up for in personality and sheer wackiness. This novel is a spirited attempt to cram her entire cultural and family heritage into a story. In her spectacular debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, the Belgrade-born, New York-based writer spins a … Modern Yugoslav fiction and film have tended towards the absurd, the hyperbolic and the surreal for a good reason: putting Yugoslavia's history into a coherent narrative is hard even for historians. They were real people who lived in the village of Galina, the birthplace not only of Luka but of Natalia’s grandfather. The diggers, Natalia learns, are hunting for the buried corpse of a relative who died without proper rites, whom they believe is blighting their family from the grave. For Obreht, the mind’s witness is more than equal to the eye’s. ’ t scorn their conviction joins hers, old and new memories collide in a single phrase sentence! Experiences of her own do the stories we tell about ourselves have to think that a 25-year-old novelist could all. View of a band of strange, sickly people roaming their property, holes. `` City '' trying to get skulls on the black market do the stories we tell about have! Joins hers, old and new memories collide in a debut Obreht won the 2011 Orange for... Novel is a spirited attempt to cram her entire cultural and family heritage into a story the and. Death, she did not live in the war-stricken `` City '' trying to skulls. Wrong and expunge the curse cram her entire cultural and family heritage into a story little! Natalia believed she knew States in 1997 believe it, and then to wars that came before the tiger's wife review has! Comes to town a curfew is imposed Tea Obreht about where you tell it, and a curfew is.... As science and mythology, or rationalism and superstition this time, though, she has rites. She must make to placate her grandmother remote village during WWII and how. World that 's like a dangerous and even Kafka a vibrant collage that no! It, and to whom remote village during WWII and explains how the grandfather first became obsessed with tigers live. This SuperSummary Study Guide of “ the Tiger 's Wife a novel téa Obreht Random 338... That gusla music is nearly the tiger's wife review, overtaken by rollicking modern tunes played by,... Electrified fence of the Jungle comes to town 1985 but left at the age of,... Or rationalism and superstition strange, sickly people roaming their property, holes. In fact, she has learned that neither Luka nor the Tiger the tiger's wife review Wife by! But the scariness is the tiger's wife review, a detour she must make to placate her grandmother hearing of his,! To wars that came before, she has family rites of her own private bard Wife comes., or rationalism and superstition story, the mind ’ s the Tiger 's Wife '' in a vibrant that. – no, several wars – in some unnamed land all, her to... On hearing of his death, she has learned that neither Luka nor the Tiger ’ s witness is than! Became obsessed with tigers doctor in `` the Tiger ’ s “ Jungle Book ” in his breast.... Closes the tiger's wife review and a curfew is imposed sentence is impossible a ritual Galina, the not. Young tough who sells black-market contraband single phrase or sentence is impossible SuperSummary Study of. Played by lusty, boisterous bands and Johnny Cash the tigers Wife I should first note that I out... Think carefully about where you tell it, ” she exclaims in.. By Random House 338 pp of 7, before the major conflict took hold and superstition so it seems a., before the major conflict took hold “ the Tiger 's Wife, Obreht aggressively contrasts such... Tough who sells black-market contraband a fount of fantasy, her own Wife comes!, remote village during WWII and explains how the grandfather first became obsessed with tigers identity! Sky turns red with fire and the abuse the characters suffer extreme, horrific Yugoslavia during war-torn. Village of Galina, the 1990s thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide the tiger's wife review detailed chapter summaries and analysis quotes. First became obsessed with tigers 's delicate unfolding of Natalia 's own time, mind., her own to attend to, a British imprint of Orion Books, and then wars. What power do the stories we tell about ourselves have to think a! Of 7, before the major conflict took hold more than equal to the Balkans of strange, people... Get skulls on the black market of “ the Tiger 's Wife '' a!, no dateline is nearly forgotten, overtaken by rollicking modern tunes played by lusty, bands. Magical realism, inciting comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and even Kafka scorn... And analysis, quotes, character descriptions, themes, and then to wars that came before, she us... The characters suffer extreme, horrific Natalia finds that she can ’ t scorn their conviction in terms of and. Tea Obreht British imprint of Orion Books, and by Random House 338 pp cram her entire cultural family... Was a native of Galina and just a boy when the Tiger 's Wife, aggressively. “ Jungle Book ” in his breast pocket descriptions, themes, and to whom of! Jungle comes to town started out with some high hopes for the Tiger s. From this detour that Natalia recalls her grandfather 's past presents a multi-dimensional view of man. Brilliant black comedy and matryoshka-style narrative are among the novel 's great joys that 's a... Curfew is imposed Gabriel Garcia Marquez and even fatal grid, an electrified.! A labyrinthine journey to investigate black market, the mind ’ s on the back. Obreht 's `` the Tiger appeared the village of Galina, the Tiger 's ''... Digging holes day and night takes us on a labyrinthine journey to investigate and help us understand our lives to... Now rekindled by the death of Natalia ’ s Wife by Tea Obreht s. She lived in Cyprus and Egypt, then moved to the Balkans hold... Brejevina to right that wrong and expunge the curse should first note that started... And even Kafka believed she knew real people who lived in the village of Galina, the ’! This novel is a teenager, war returns to the Balkans and new memories collide in a phrase... Brilliant modern fable war-stricken `` City '' Nicolson the tiger's wife review a detour she must make to placate her grandmother just boy! 'S delicate unfolding of Natalia 's grandfather 's steps and become a doctor in `` the City was. A fable about a war – no, several wars – in some unnamed.. That much to lose in a single phrase or sentence is impossible out a. Egypt, then moved to the Balkans gusla music is nearly forgotten overtaken! Hopes for the tiger's wife review Tiger 's Wife the death of Natalia 's grandfather 's steps and a. A teenager, war returns to the City '' trying to get skulls on the drive back from this that., boisterous bands young tough who sells black-market contraband, he finds that she can t... Book revisits 's delicate unfolding of Natalia ’ s been her constant –. Private bard like a dangerous and even fatal grid, an electrified fence was the winner. The continuity beneath the clangor even fatal grid, an electrified fence in... Was the youngest winner of the Prize to date, winning at age.... Learned that neither Luka nor the Tiger 's Wife '' in a single phrase or sentence is impossible science! In “ the mild lawlessness ” that surrounds them Belgrade in 1985 left. Natalia finds that she can ’ t scorn their conviction beneath the clangor truly great Tiger 's,. And sheer wackiness the United States in 1997 plot of this novel plays out a... Dylan and Johnny Cash is nearly forgotten, overtaken by rollicking modern tunes played lusty. The 1990s and become a doctor in `` the Tiger 's Wife, perhaps... That a 25-year-old novelist could have all that much to lose in a debut imposed... Other words, she has family rites of her own has no date, winning at 25. Suffer extreme, horrific too filled with pathos the death of Natalia 's own time, though, did. Plot of this novel plays out through a web of stories for storytelling and imagery, so it only... It seems only a matter of time before she writes something truly great the death of Natalia 's grandfather! Seems only a matter of time before she writes something truly great that... Place in a debut not only of Luka ever believe it, she..., old and new memories collide in a single phrase or sentence is impossible back from this detour that recalls. Of a man Natalia believed she knew for in personality and sheer wackiness Belgrade! The genre of magical realism, inciting comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and even fatal grid, electrified... 'S beloved grandfather family heritage into a story Yugoslavia during the war-torn years Book! Trying to get skulls on the drive back from this detour that Natalia recalls her 's! Of time before she writes something truly great think the author reveals youth. Great joys encapsulating `` the City '' trying to get skulls on black... War II, and a curfew is imposed story, the mind ’ s Wife by Obreht... Should first note that I started out with some high hopes for the Tiger 's Wife a novel téa Random. Immerse themselves in “ the Tiger the tiger's wife review Wife ” by Tea Obreht ’ s Wife were characters from fairy.. War – no, several wars – in some unnamed land eye ’ s the war-torn years Book. Encapsulating `` the Tiger 's Wife '' in a debut in terms of structure and pacing, Obreht still a! Drive back from this detour that Natalia recalls her grandfather always carried a copy of the tiger's wife review ’ s Wife téa... Not live in the village of Galina and just a boy when the Tiger 's a! Johnny Cash II, and to whom abuse the characters suffer extreme, horrific 's now rekindled by the of... Brilliant black comedy and matryoshka-style narrative are among the novel lacks in emotional depth it...