Here's what I wrote in 2011 about this read: "Good read - critically aclaimed first novel by born-in-Bosnian writer. She spins a good tale re the narrator's grandfather's life bookended by his two stories . . . The Tiger's Wife and the Deathless Man. Who was that deathless man, by the way, and interesting to see the tiger as an analogy for death. " ( )

Natalia, the narrator of The Tiger's Wife is a doctor who comes of age in a war torn Eastern Europe during the 1990ies, with an admiration for Bruce Springsteen. Her grandfather, also a doctor comes of age in an Eastern Europe tore apart by World War Two, with an obsession for Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. You wouldn't think a novel with two such main characters would be so richly steeped in mythology and folklore, but that's exactly the tale the author, Tea Obreht presents us with. Natalia's grandfather tells her not only the tale of The Tiger's Wife but of the Deathless Man as well. He tells her these, not as stories, but as something he actually lived through. Natalia desperately wants to believe him, and consequently so do we. Storytelling at it's best ! ( )

Natalia is a doctor working in the war-riven former Yugoslavia when the news comes that her grandfather has disappeared. The book recounts Natalia's memories of her grandfather, especially the two stories he told her: that of the tiger's wife, a young Islamic woman living in his Christian village, who was thought to have fallen pregnant to a tiger roaming the nearby hills, and that of the deathless man, whom he encountered repeatedly through his adult life. As Natalia dwells on these stories, she comes to grips with the fate of her grandfather.

Obreht uses these two motifs to highlight the indiscriminate deaths of wartime and the sectarian resentments that led up to the war. It's original and beautifully written, and you can see why it won literary awards like the Orange Prize, but it simply lacks the spark to engage the reader until the very end, as she approaches her resolution. ( )

Wonderful storytelling, about a young Serb doctor and her grandfather (also a doctor), and mostly about characters from her grandfather’s childhood. Lots of shifts in time, some going back many generations. Some magical realism kind of stuff which I usually don’t care for, but the stories are so beautifully told I was happy to be caught up in it. Some of it was about the tragic events during the breakup of Yugoslavia, interesting to hear about it from a a teenager’s point of view.

Listened to the audiobook. The narrator had a British accent which was a tiny bit weird, but I enjoyed listening to her. ( )

Another magical realism type deal. I had moments when I was completely absorbed and moments when I was looking for anything else to do besides read this book. Ah well, sometimes it's like that. But one reason I would recommend this title is the perceptive writing on the part of Obreht. Her individual and cultural observations make the book worth the time. ( )