Téa Obreht Tames the Wild with The Tiger's Wife Tonight at Elliott Bay Book Co.
I know that when I was twenty-five much of my time was spent on booze, boys and friends—Téa Obreht, on the other hand, has spent her time crafting an eloquent and articulate debut novel, The Tiger's Wife, about the power of myth and reality in self-discovery. Born in the former Yugoslavia, Obreht has already been recognized by The New Yorker as one of the top twenty best American fiction writers under forty, and her work has been published in everything from Harper’s to The Guardian. Yes, I too am feeling slightly inadequate.
But a masterpiece is what she has created—weaving the present life of the doctor protagonist, Natalia, with the two fascinating (and mystical) stories about her grandfather’s life that he holds most dear. This interplay of present-day reality and the folklore of the past is what make Wife so absorbing—especially when that lines between the two begin to blur.
The story really begins with the mysterious death of Natalia’s grandfather in an isolated village—an event that coincides with her travels to inoculate orphans in territory that was just recently hostile territory for her country (which though unnamed, seems suspiciously like the former Yugoslavia). In this peculiar terrain Natalia encounters a sickly band of “diggers” in the vineyard searching for the bones of lost relatives, parrots who spout prose, and a mysterious nearby village which may hold the secret to her grandfather’s death.
The trip also dredges up memories of home—of the war, bombs, destruction, and the empty cages of the city’s former zoo, much beloved by Natalia and her grandfather. It is in these memories that we first hear the tales of the deathless man and the tiger’s wife.
Magical, puzzling and entertaining, these stories construct a backdrop for Natalia’s family—they allow us a peek into a grandfather who is complex and distant, but deeply loved by his granddaughter. The stories are fable, fact, and legend, and Natalia clings to them as the only thing left of her grandfather—finally realizing that in the end we really are the sum of the stories that make up our history, and the history of our ancestors.
The richness of Obreht’s text is what brings the story to life—every description so vibrant that the details of the war-torn, disordered city soon make you exhausted. And the magical and spooky nature of her writing is encapsulated in the last interaction between her grandfather and the deathless man—the beautiful descriptions of the extravagant meal, the eerie conversation that alludes to imminent death, but also to hope for the future.
Toward the end of The Tiger’s Wife the deathless man says, “Everybody’s from somewhere…” This phrase sums up Natalia’s journey through the complicated web of her grandfather’s stories—a journey that eventually leads her to self-awareness, and leads the reader to a swirling mind where fact and fiction are jumbled together in a spellbinding way.
Téa Obreht will be at Elliott Bay Book Co. tonight at 7 p.m.; Come join the others gawking at this young and brilliant literary talent.
7 p.m. // Elliott Bay Book Co. // FREE
