(Current fiction and quality fiction of the past.)
“The Tiger’s Wife” (Random House) by Téa Obreht tells the story of Natalia, a young doctor, who is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife.
Examiner feels that Obreht’s writing is superb: “If it is properly enticed, the soul will return as the days go by, to rummage through drawers, peer inside cupboards, seek the tactile comfort of its living identity by reassessing the dish rack and the doorbell and the telephone, reminding itself of functionality, all the time touching things that produce sound and make its presence known to the inhabitants of the house.” – Copy © Téa Obreht
The novel is set in un-named Balkan country mending from war. Obreht’s narrative carries the kind of authenticity that native-born writers do so well. Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and is forthcoming in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, according to the publisher.
Throughout 2011 the novel received lavish praise and was a National Book Award finalist. The bit that caught Examiner’s attention was: “A spectacular accomplishment . . . written in a wry, classical, luxuriant style reminiscent of Tolstoy.”— Marie Claire
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