Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, (and prominent occupant of Waterstone's offers table over the past few months) Tea Obreht's debut novel is about fables and folklore. Natalia is traveling to provide vaccinations for an orphanage across the boarder of a war torn country when she learns of her beloved grandfather's death. This causes her to re-tell, and see with fresh eyes, two stories that he told her as a child: one of the deathless man, and one of the tiger's wife.
This was ridiculously easy to get into. I was intrigued by the premise and as I devoured every word I enjoyed it's mysterious ambiguity. However, towards the end of the novel I began to question Obreht's structuring of the plot, weaving between the tales and Natalia's present were often clunky, and I was dissatisfied with the ending. What I had loved in the beginning had come back to bite me. I may need to have another read in a years time as the start was brilliant, it's just a shame the last third could not live up to that promise, but I will still look forward to Obreht's next novel.
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