THE TIGER'S WIFE by Tea Obreht

This novel is about the deep relationship between a young doctor named Natalia and her late grandfather who was also a doctor. The Tiger's Wife is a story set in a Balkan country, which is recovering from war. Natalia is on a goodwill mission to vaccinate the children of an orphanage there. She is staying with a family who volunteered to accommodate Natalia until her mission is over and this is when she noticed a group of people digging holes in the backyard all day and night. Natalia finds out that they are trying to find the bodies of relatives that were buried without proper rites, which they believed is affecting them and their families like a curse bringing bad luck and harm upon them. Though educated and non - superstitious, Natalia realises that these people are right in their own ways by wanting to give their dead relatives a final resting as per their rituals and beliefs. This makes Natalia realise that she also has the responsibility to do the same for her beloved grandfather who had died trying to come all the way to meet Natalia and help her on her goodwill mission. But Natalia and her grandfather knew he had cancer and that his health would not allow him to travel the distance to come and assist her. Natalia realises that he had set out on the journey inspite of knowing that it could cause him his life and this makes her wonder why he did it. on her way back to meet her grieving grandmother, she remembers two stories her grandfather had told her as a child: The story of a girl he once knew as the "tiger's wife" and another story of a butcher's son named Luka. As a kid she thought these were fictional, but she now realises they are actually real people who lived in the village of Galina and that these stories can help her find answers to the mystery of her grandfather's death. The Tiger's Wife is written by Tea Obreht and was published by Phoenix in 2011. It is available in paperback. Key Features: This novel won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011.

Categories: Mystery