While praising Obreht for writing with great lyrical force, some have criticized her for writing a disjointed novel. I disagree. Her novel's central question asks, "How do people respond to death?" The setting is the Balkans, an area with complex histories and cultures -- all wrestling wi...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/222503852">more...</a> (Posted on 12/20/11)

The gorgeous writing of this first time author is extremely impressive. This book demands full attention of the reader, so don’t even think of taking more than a few days to read it. It is part fable, part myth, part magical realism and leaves you exhausted (in a good way). The author leaves certa...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/159506537">more...</a> (Posted on 12/15/11)

In &quot;The Tiger’s Wife”, Tea Obreht tackles the twin and interwoven themes of war and death with a mixture of lore, fable and myth. The war, although never identified, is the Balkan conflict of the nineties and Obreht pointedly never identifies real towns or landmarks instead preferring to ...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/157337603">more...</a> (Posted on 12/14/11)

Thank goodness for other reviewers with more patience than me - I was able to understand more about the book in an hour browsing the discussion/review pages on Goodreads than 3 weeks wrestling with the Tiger. After checking others' views on the book to make sure it wasn't entirely my fault that the...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/226294897">more...</a> (Posted on 10/25/11)

&quot;He sat up, pushed his chair away from the table and rubbed his knees. 'When men die, they die in fear,' he said. 'They take everything they need from you, and as a doctor it is your job to give it, to comfort them, to hold their hand. But children die how they have been living--in hope. They d...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/120303944">more...</a> (Posted on 9/4/11)

I think it's interesting to look at the literature coming out now that has to do with building a mythology. Is it because of the incredible works of people like Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino and others who have influenced so strongly this generation? Or is it that as we become...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/140057662">more...</a> (Posted on 8/26/11)

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this book and will try to articulate them to see if I can make some sense of the score I should assign.
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<br/>The positives:
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<br/>Obreht writes incredibly well, her descriptions are lush and evoked several visceral reactions. There is an underlying ...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/154562850">more...</a> (Posted on 8/10/11)

It's so sad. People create meaning out of events that befuddle and frighten them to help put context into the diary they write every sunset. There is the story of the isolated village with expected roles for each villager in relationship to the village reprised several times decades apart in the boo...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/179939568">more...</a> (Posted on 7/2/11)

One of those books that casts a spell from which you emerge so reluctantly after the last word. The cycles of death and rebirth, superstition and truth, love and revenge weave through the legends and family stories of the Balkans and the quests of two doctors, a modern young woman and her beloved gr...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/174145611">more...</a> (Posted on 6/16/11)

Really an experience. Amazing blend of fable and war and search for harmony among cultures with different stories, different enemies. I was nervous knowing this was Ms. Obreht's debut novel and that she was so young but,as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. Her story was well managed and h...
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/169338203">more...</a> (Posted on 6/13/11)