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A review by pjdas1012
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
4.0
"I will not remember this as sentimentality, but as greatness."
This book was so close to being 5 stars for me. At its core, it’s the story of a woman and her grandfather. Both are doctors in a war torn European country, and the granddaughter is trying to piece together her grandfather’s life based on two stories: the deathless man and the tiger’s wife. The central ideas of this book are the narrator’s relationship, conflict, and profound love for her grandfather and also the power of storytelling. The author delves into the formative stories of the heroes and villains, but the most beautiful moments of this story were when the narrator reminisced about her grandfather and how much she idolized him.
Strengths:
- Moving sentiments about a granddaughter’s love for her grandfather
- Exquisite storytelling with a haunting, fable-like quality
- Evokes deep emotions and made me think about it even when I wasn’t reading
Watch out for:
- Some passages went by a little slower than others and I ended up skimming those to get back to the characters I cared about (otherwise I would have rated it 5 stars)
- Graphic descriptions of severe domestic abuse and mentions of sexual violence. There are moments in this book that were extremely difficult to read because of how vividly the abuse was depicted.
This book was so close to being 5 stars for me. At its core, it’s the story of a woman and her grandfather. Both are doctors in a war torn European country, and the granddaughter is trying to piece together her grandfather’s life based on two stories: the deathless man and the tiger’s wife. The central ideas of this book are the narrator’s relationship, conflict, and profound love for her grandfather and also the power of storytelling. The author delves into the formative stories of the heroes and villains, but the most beautiful moments of this story were when the narrator reminisced about her grandfather and how much she idolized him.
Strengths:
- Moving sentiments about a granddaughter’s love for her grandfather
- Exquisite storytelling with a haunting, fable-like quality
- Evokes deep emotions and made me think about it even when I wasn’t reading
Watch out for:
- Some passages went by a little slower than others and I ended up skimming those to get back to the characters I cared about (otherwise I would have rated it 5 stars)
- Graphic descriptions of severe domestic abuse and mentions of sexual violence. There are moments in this book that were extremely difficult to read because of how vividly the abuse was depicted.