"The Tiger's Wife" is a captivating novel that weaves together the myths and realities of a Balkan village through the story of Natalia's search for the truth about her grandfather. The novel's most distinctive feature is the haunting presence of the tiger, which serves as a powerful symbol of the region's past and present struggles. Fans of magical realism and historical fiction will find "The Tiger's Wife" a rewarding and unforgettable read.

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'Having sifted through everything I have heard about the tiger and his
wife, I can tell you that this much is fact: in April of 1941, without
declaration or warning, the German bombs started falling over the city and
did not stop for three days. The tiger did not know that they were
bombs...' A tiger escapes from the local zoo, padding through the ruined
streets and onwards, to a ridge above the Balkan village of Galina. His
nocturnal visits hold the villagers in a terrified thrall. But for one boy,
the tiger is a thing of magic - Shere Khan awoken from the pages of The
Jungle Book. Natalia is the granddaughter of that boy. Now a doctor, she is
visiting orphanages after another war has devastated the Balkans. On this
journey, she receives word of her beloved grandfather's death, far from
their home, in circumstances shrouded in mystery. From fragments of stories
her grandfather told her as a child, Natalia realises he may have died
searching for 'the deathless man', a vagabond who was said to be immortal.
Struggling to understand why a man of science would undertake such a quest,
she stumbles upon a clue that will lead her to a tattered copy of The
Jungle Book, and then to the extraordinary story of the tiger's wife.