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| - The Tiger's Wife is a 2011 novel by Téa Obreht, and winner of that year's Orange Prize. The story is set in the early 21st century, in an unspecified Balkan country which has recently been divided by war. The narrator, Natalia, is a young doctor who goes with her friend Zóra to provide medical aid to a small village across the border, where she encounters some rather strange superstitions. She is also dealing with the recent death of her grandfather, also a doctor, who suffered from a terminal cancer which he kept secret from everyone except her.
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abstract
| - The Tiger's Wife is a 2011 novel by Téa Obreht, and winner of that year's Orange Prize. The story is set in the early 21st century, in an unspecified Balkan country which has recently been divided by war. The narrator, Natalia, is a young doctor who goes with her friend Zóra to provide medical aid to a small village across the border, where she encounters some rather strange superstitions. She is also dealing with the recent death of her grandfather, also a doctor, who suffered from a terminal cancer which he kept secret from everyone except her. The story mixes modern narration with folktales, family anecdotes, and details which Natalia couldn't possibly know. There are three main plotlines:
* The story of the eponymous tiger's wife, a deaf-mute girl who lived in the village where Natalia's grandfather was born. Unable to communicate with the villagers and abused by her husband, who was tricked into marrying her, she forms a bond with a tiger which escapes from a zoo in the City and makes its way to the area.
* The story of Gavran Gailé, the 'deathless man', whom Natalia's grandfather met several times in different periods of his life and who apparently cannot die or age; Gavo claims that Death is his uncle, and gave him immortality as a punishment for preventing the death of the woman he loved
* The story of Natalia's growing up in the war-ravaged City, training as a doctor, and her medical aid trip with Zóra, as well as her relationship with her grandfather and her coming to terms with his death. However, there are also many stories within these larger plotlines, including extensive backstories of minor characters like Luka and Dariśa, which move more into an omniscient narration, given that there's absolutely no way for Natalia to know them.
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