Book Review: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

My October Book Club read was The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

What I noticed first about this book was the age of the author - a young blonde 20 something who has made it onto New York's Top 20 Under 40 list. I was really impressed with the authors style in the first half of the book the story telling was fantastic. The second half got a bit lost along the way (or rather I got lost!) with 2 and 3 stories being told at once it was hard to see where one ended and another began.

The story is told by Natalia and is about her grandfathers life, first when he was a kid and later when he was being pursued by 'the deathless man'. The thing about this book is that the stories are whimsical and hard to believe (I mean a tiger having a wife? Really?). Meanwhile the reality of the book is it's being told in the midst of World War 11 and when Natalia is out in the danger zone treating sick kids. So it's like being read a fairytale in the midst of a crisis which is quite surreal.

I would recommend this book for those that like a bit of whimsical in their reality. Of course it's about tigers too, so animal lovers you will no doubt bond to this book as well.

I'm going to start rating my books from now on and I give the The Tigers Wife 3.5 out of 5

[Image via Angus & Robertson]