Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011!
Tea Obreht was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, emigrating to the US in 1997. She was the youngest author on The New Yorker's Top 20 Writers under 40 List and one of the youngest authors ever to be extracted in the magazine. Her short story, The Laugh, debuted in The Atlantic Fiction Issue and was then chosen for The Best American Short Stories 2010, while her short story, The Sentry appeared in the Guardian Summer Fiction Issue alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell. She lives in New York.
Obreht's novel is that rarity: a debut that arrives fully formed,
super smart but wearing its learning lightly. Above all The Tiger's
Wife bristles with confidence
*Financial Times*
The brilliant black comedy and matryoshka-style narrative are among
the novel's great joys...Obreht has prodigious talent for
storytelling and imagery
*Guardian*
Beautifully executed, haunting and lyrical, The Tiger's Wife is an
ambitious novel that succeeds on all counts. It's a book you will
want to read again and again
*Indpendent*
Obreht's landscape hovers half in and half out of fable - where
villagers who daily risk being hoisted by landmines also fear
malign spirits, tigers' brides and men who transform into bears...
It's a part of the world that Obreht has made her imagination's
own: raucous and strange and gorgeous and rather haunting. This is
a pretty formidable first novel. Here be tigers
*Financial Times*
She is a natural born storyteller and this is a startlingly
suggestive novel about the dying out of myths and superstitions and
rituals that bind people to place: the retreat of the spirits
*Daily Telegraph*
This is a distinguished work by almost any standard, and a
genuinely exciting debut... Obreht has a vibrant, rangy,
full-bodied prose style, which moves expertly between realistic and
mythic modes of storytelling, conjuring brilliant images on every
page... a delightful work, as enchanting as it is surprising, and
Obreht is a compelling new voice
*Sunday Times*
The Tiger's Wife has been touted as one of 2011's outstanding
debuts and it deserves its reputation...Weaving together
fantastical tales and folklore with realism about coming to terms
with loss and grief, it is also a book about the secrets people
keep. This layering of stories creates a book rich in textures.
Combining a mystery narrative, a family narrative and a book about
the worlds of the imagination, Téa Obreht's novel is one that
allows the reader to get lost in them
*Metro*
The Tiger's Wife, is assured, eloquent and not easily
forgotten...war is just a backdrop, religions barely identified. It
is the tiger, the deathless man, and the inquisitive doctor who
lead the story through its layers of modern-day reality, magical
realism, and folklore...her pacing in the book is delicious -
Obreht has the storyteller's gift for suspense, and holds back
details until the reader can wait no more...she has lived up to the
early hype
*Independent on Sunday*
Natalia, a young doctor, is on her way to deliver aid to a remote
orphanage when she discovers her beloved grandfather is dead. As
she tries to reconstruct her grandfather's last journey, she
recalls his stories, which combine folklore and mystery with his
exquisite humanity. Set in a Balkan country adjusting to life after
the war, the book resonates with the aftershocks of conflict, old
enmities, fatalism and superstition. Haunting, thoughtful and
beautifully atmospheric
*Psychologies*
Varied, poignant and beguilingly fantastical...The Tiger's Wife is
an exciting, fast-paced and mystical novel that'll have you rushing
to the end
*Time Out*
Spellbinding... Téa Obreht's debut has the fantastical allure of a
folk fable
*Marie Claire*
This astounding debut novel about the former Yugoslavia in wartime
is so rich with themes of love, legends and mortality that every
novel that comes after it this year is in peril of falling short in
comparison with its uncanny beauty...Not since Zadie Smith has a
young writer arrived with such power and grace
*Time*
Téa Obreht's stunning debut novel, The Tiger's Wife, is a hugely
ambitious, audaciously written work that provides an indelible
picture of life in an unnamed Balkan country still reeling from the
fallout of civil war... Ms. Obreht, who was born in the former
Yugoslavia and is, astonishingly, only 25, writes with remarkable
authority and eloquence... Ms. Obreht has not only made a
precocious debut, but she has also written a richly textured and
searing novel
*New York Times*
Téa Obreht is an extraordinarily talented writer...brings to mind
the novels of Mikhail Bulgakov...[a] truly marvellous and memorable
first novel
*New York Review of Books*
Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife comes freighted with more critical
anticipation than any debut novel in recent memory...That sort of
unearned, pre-emptive prestige spurs both impossible expectations
and skeptical readings - a burden that would doom most first
novels. Yet The Tiger's Wife, in its solemn beauty and unerring
execution, fully justifies the accolades that Ms. Obreht's short
fiction inspired. She has a talent for subtle plotting that eludes
most writers twice her age, and her descriptive powers suggest a
kind of channeled genius. No novel this year has seemed more likely
to disappoint; no novel has been more satisfying
*Wall Street Journal*
Tea Obreht's swirling first novel, The Tiger's Wife, draws us
beneath the clotted tragedies in the Balkans to deliver the kind of
truth that histories can't touch. Born in Belgrade in 1985 - no,
that's not a typo - she captures the thirst for consecration that a
century of war has left in that bloody part of the world. It's a
novel of enormous ambitions that manages in its modest length to
contain the conflicts between Christians and Muslims, Turks and
Ottomans, science and superstition... Well-deserved praise has been
accumulating ever since Obreht published a chapter in the New
Yorker almost two years ago, and now that we have the whole, its
graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend
seems even more absorbing
*Washington Post*
Astonishingly assured...full of vivid, dreamlike
sequence...Obreht's mesmerizing writing is key to the novel, which
succeeds through a kind of harmonic resonance...Obreht's striking
ability to explain the world through stories is matched by her
patience with the parts of life - and death - that endlessly
confound us
*Boston Globe*
Deftly walks the line between the realistic and the fantastical . .
. In Obreht's expert hands, the novel's mythology, while rooted in
a foreign world, comes to seem somehow familiar, like the dark
fairy tales of our own youth, the kind that spooked us into reading
them again and again . . . [Reveals] oddly comforting truths about
death, belief in the impossible, and the art of letting go
*O: The Oprah Magazine*
A wonderful, really remarkable novel...fascinating, unusual,
original
*on WOMAN'S HOUR, RADIO 4*
A magical, distinctive tale.
*DAILY EXPRESS*
As enchanting as it is surprising ... Obreht's prose style is
full-bodied and vibrant, and she conjures brilliant images on every
page.
*SUNDAY TIMES*
War and its legacy ricochets through Obreht's kaleidoscopic dance
of myth, folk memory and interrelated stories ... dizzying and
ambitious
*LONDON METRO*
a stunning tale with the mythic quality of a fairy story
*TIMES*
Mysterious and funny
*SUNDAY HERALD*
A distinctive, magical tale
*DAILY EXPRESS*
A tiger that's fled the zoo during World War II and the "deathless man" who collects the souls of the departed: two tales told to young medic Natalia by her grandfather that frame this bold, imaginative debut, effectively capturing the fearfulness that precipitated the recent fighting in the author's native Balkans. Obreht's storytelling is complex, humbling, and sheer magic. (LJ 1/11) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Obreht's novel is that rarity: a debut that arrives fully formed,
super smart but wearing its learning lightly. Above all The
Tiger's Wife bristles with confidence -- Adrian Turpin *
Financial Times *
The brilliant black comedy and matryoshka-style narrative are among
the novel's great joys...Obreht has prodigious talent for
storytelling and imagery * Guardian *
Beautifully executed, haunting and lyrical, The Tiger's
Wife is an ambitious novel that succeeds on all counts.
It's a book you will want to read again and again * Indpendent
*
Obreht's landscape hovers half in and half out of fable - where
villagers who daily risk being hoisted by landmines also fear
malign spirits, tigers' brides and men who transform into bears...
It's a part of the world that Obreht has made her imagination's
own: raucous and strange and gorgeous and rather haunting.
This is a pretty formidable first novel. Here be tigers --
Sam Leith * Financial Times *
She is a natural born storyteller and this is a
startlingly suggestive novel about the dying out of myths
and superstitions and rituals that bind people to place: the
retreat of the spirits * Daily Telegraph *
This is a distinguished work by almost any standard, and
a genuinely exciting debut... Obreht has a vibrant, rangy,
full-bodied prose style, which moves expertly between realistic and
mythic modes of storytelling, conjuring brilliant images on every
page... a delightful work, as enchanting as it is
surprising, and Obreht is a compelling new voice * Sunday Times
*
The Tiger's Wife has been touted as one of 2011's
outstanding debuts and it deserves its reputation...Weaving
together fantastical tales and folklore with realism about coming
to terms with loss and grief, it is also a book about the secrets
people keep. This layering of stories creates a book rich in
textures. Combining a mystery narrative, a family narrative and a
book about the worlds of the imagination, Tea Obreht's novel is
one that allows the reader to get lost in them * Metro *
The Tiger's Wife, is assured, eloquent and not easily
forgotten...war is just a backdrop, religions barely
identified. It is the tiger, the deathless man, and the inquisitive
doctor who lead the story through its layers of modern-day reality,
magical realism, and folklore...her pacing in the book is delicious
- Obreht has the storyteller's gift for suspense, and holds
back details until the reader can wait no more...she has lived up
to the early hype * Independent on Sunday *
Natalia, a young doctor, is on her way to deliver aid to a remote
orphanage when she discovers her beloved grandfather is dead. As
she tries to reconstruct her grandfather's last journey, she
recalls his stories, which combine folklore and mystery with his
exquisite humanity. Set in a Balkan country adjusting to life after
the war, the book resonates with the aftershocks of conflict, old
enmities, fatalism and superstition. Haunting, thoughtful and
beautifully atmospheric * Psychologies *
Varied, poignant and beguilingly fantastical...The Tiger's
Wife is an exciting, fast-paced and mystical novel
that'll have you rushing to the end * Time Out *
Spellbinding... Tea Obreht's debut has the fantastical
allure of a folk fable * Marie Claire *
This astounding debut novel about the former Yugoslavia in
wartime is so rich with themes of love, legends and mortality that
every novel that comes after it this year is in peril of falling
short in comparison with its uncanny beauty...Not since Zadie
Smith has a young writer arrived with such power and grace *
Time *
Tea Obreht's stunning debut novel, The Tiger's Wife, is a
hugely ambitious, audaciously written work that provides an
indelible picture of life in an unnamed Balkan country still
reeling from the fallout of civil war... Ms. Obreht, who was born
in the former Yugoslavia and is, astonishingly, only 25, writes
with remarkable authority and eloquence... Ms. Obreht has not only
made a precocious debut, but she has also written a richly textured
and searing novel * New York Times *
Tea Obreht is an extraordinarily talented writer...brings to mind
the novels of Mikhail Bulgakov...[a] truly marvellous and memorable
first novel * New York Review of Books *
Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife comes freighted with more
critical anticipation than any debut novel in recent memory...That
sort of unearned, pre-emptive prestige spurs both impossible
expectations and skeptical readings - a burden that would doom most
first novels. Yet The Tiger's Wife, in its solemn beauty and
unerring execution, fully justifies the accolades that Ms. Obreht's
short fiction inspired. She has a talent for subtle plotting that
eludes most writers twice her age, and her descriptive powers
suggest a kind of channeled genius. No novel this year has seemed
more likely to disappoint; no novel has been more satisfying * Wall
Street Journal *
Tea Obreht's swirling first novel, The Tiger's Wife, draws
us beneath the clotted tragedies in the Balkans to deliver the kind
of truth that histories can't touch. Born in Belgrade in 1985 - no,
that's not a typo - she captures the thirst for consecration that a
century of war has left in that bloody part of the world. It's a
novel of enormous ambitions that manages in its modest length to
contain the conflicts between Christians and Muslims, Turks and
Ottomans, science and superstition... Well-deserved praise has been
accumulating ever since Obreht published a chapter in the New
Yorker almost two years ago, and now that we have the whole, its
graceful commingling of contemporary realism and village legend
seems even more absorbing * Washington Post *
Astonishingly assured...full of vivid, dreamlike
sequence...Obreht's mesmerizing writing is key to the novel, which
succeeds through a kind of harmonic resonance...Obreht's striking
ability to explain the world through stories is matched by her
patience with the parts of life - and death - that endlessly
confound us * Boston Globe *
Deftly walks the line between the realistic and the fantastical . .
. In Obreht's expert hands, the novel's mythology, while rooted in
a foreign world, comes to seem somehow familiar, like the dark
fairy tales of our own youth, the kind that spooked us into reading
them again and again . . . [Reveals] oddly comforting truths about
death, belief in the impossible, and the art of letting go * O: The
Oprah Magazine *
A wonderful, really remarkable novel...fascinating, unusual,
original -- Erica Wagner * on WOMAN'S HOUR, RADIO 4 *
A magical, distinctive tale. -- Emma Lee-Potter * DAILY EXPRESS
*
As enchanting as it is surprising ... Obreht's prose style is
full-bodied and vibrant, and she conjures brilliant images on every
page. -- Edmund Gordon * SUNDAY TIMES *
War and its legacy ricochets through Obreht's kaleidoscopic dance
of myth, folk memory and interrelated stories ... dizzying and
ambitious * LONDON METRO *
a stunning tale with the mythic quality of a fairy story * TIMES
*
Mysterious and funny * SUNDAY HERALD *
A distinctive, magical tale * DAILY EXPRESS *
In a war-torn Balkan country, a young doctor remembers her grandfather and tells a series of interlinked tales both historical and magical featuring the tiger's wife and the deathless man. In this account of love, loss, and war in the modern world, Obreht's vivid writing creates unforgettable visions of unique settings. (Mar.) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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