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{{short description|2011 novel by Téa Obreht}}
{{lead too short|date=February 2014}}
{{lead too short|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
|name = The Tiger's Wife
|name = The Tiger's Wife
|image = [[File:The Tiger's Wife (Obreht novel) cover art.jpg|200px|Cover]]
|image = The Tiger's Wife (Obreht novel) cover art.jpg
|caption = Front cover of US edition
|caption = Front cover of US edition
|alt =
|alt =
Line 9: Line 10:
|language = English
|language = English
|genre =
|genre =
|publisher = [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/tigers-wife/oclc/768946512/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=di&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= Formats and Editions of Tiger's wife"]. [[WorldCat]]. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref> <br>Random House (US)
|publisher = [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]<ref name=worldcat>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/tigers-wife/oclc/768946512/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=di&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= Formats and Editions of Tiger's wife"]. [[WorldCat]]. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref> <br>Random House (US)
|pub_date = 2011
|pub_date = 2010 <br>2011 (US)<ref name=LCC/> <!--March 2011 http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/The-Tigers-Wife-Tea-Obreht.htm -->
|media_type = Print ([[hardcover]]), [[audiobook]], [[eBook]]
|media_type = Print ([[hardcover]]), [[audiobook]], [[eBook]]
|pages = 337 (first edition)
|pages = 337 (first edition)
|isbn = 978-0-297-85901-7 <br>ISBN 0-385-34383-3 (US)
|isbn = 0-385-34383-3
|oclc = 629791302 <!-- 722935450 -->
|oclc = 629791302 <!-- 722935450 -->
|congress = PS3615.B73 T54 2011<ref name=LCC>[http://lccn.loc.gov/2010009612 "Tiger's wife"] (US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>
|congress = PS3615.B73 T54 2011<ref name=LCC>[http://lccn.loc.gov/2010009612 "Tiger's wife"] (US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>
}}
}}


'''''The Tiger's Wife''''' is the [[debut novel]] of American writer [[Téa Obreht]]. It was published in 2011 by [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], a British imprint of [[Orion Publishing Group|Orion Books]], and by [[Random House]] in America.<ref name=worldcat/> Set in mid 20th-century to early 21st century [[Balkans]], it explores inter-generational dynamics between members of a medical family, and how they were involved in several wars throughout the timeframe.
'''''The Tiger's Wife''''' is the [[debut novel|first novel]] by [[Téa Obreht]], an American novelist of [[Bosniak]]/[[Slovenes|Slovene]] origin.

Obreht won the 2011 [[Women's Prize for Fiction|Orange Prize for Fiction]] for ''The Tiger's Wife,''<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|date=2011-06-08|title=Orange prize 2011 goes to Téa Obreht|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/08/orange-prize-2011-tea-obreht|access-date=2020-08-04|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref> becoming the youngest winner of the prize to date, at age 25.<ref name=":0" /> The novel was finalist for the [[National Book Award for Fiction]]<ref name="nba2011" /> and the [[Dylan Thomas Prize]].<ref name="BBC_15381124" /> <!--Thus it qualified for the 2011 Orange Prize Fiction as a 2010 British publ (wonder whether available to judges but not for sale to public) and for the 2011 National Book Award as a 2011 U.S. publ-->


==Story==
==Story==
''The Tiger's Wife'' is set in an unnamed Balkan country, in the present and half a century ago, and features a young doctor's relationship with her grandfather and the stories he tells her, primarily about the 'deathless man' who meets him several times in different places and never changes, and a deaf-mute girl from his childhood village who befriends a tiger that has escaped from a zoo. It was largely written while she was at Cornell,<ref>Flanagan, Mark. [http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/authorprofiles/p/Tea-Obreht.htm "Tea Obreht"]. ''Contemporary Literature''. About.com. Retrieved 28 March 2011.</ref> and excerpted in ''The New Yorker'' in June 2009.<ref>Lee, Stephan (4 March 2011). [http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/03/04/tea-obreht-interview "Téa Obreht, author of 'The Tiger's Wife,' on craft, age, and early success" (interview)]. ''Entertainment Weekly''. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.</ref> Asked to summarize it by a university journalist, Obreht replied, "It's a family saga that takes place in a fictionalized province of the Balkans. It’s about a female narrator and her relationship to her grandfather, who's a doctor. It's a saga about doctors and their relationships to death throughout all these wars in the Balkans."<ref>''Cornell Daily Sun''. {{full|date=April 2014}}</ref>
''The Tiger's Wife'' is set in an unnamed country in the [[Balkans]], spanning the mid 20th-century to the early 21st century. It features a young doctor's relationship with her grandfather and the stories he tells her. Her grandfather retells stories about the "deathless man" who meets him several times in different places and who doesn't die, regardless of the danger he faces; and a deaf-mute girl from his childhood village who befriends a tiger that has escaped from a nearby zoo.
==Background==
The novel was largely written while Obreht was attending [[Cornell University]].<ref name=About>Flanagan, Mark. [http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/authorprofiles/p/Tea-Obreht.htm "Tea Obreht"]. ''Contemporary Literature''. About.com. Retrieved 28 March 2011.</ref> Portions of the novel were excerpted in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' in June 2009.<ref>Lee, Stephan (4 March 2011). [http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/03/04/tea-obreht-interview "Téa Obreht, author of 'The Tiger's Wife,' on craft, age, and early success"] (interview). ''Entertainment Weekly''. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.</ref> When Obreht was asked to summarize the story by a university journalist, she replied, "It's a family saga that takes place in a fictionalized province of the Balkans. It’s about a female narrator and her relationship to her grandfather, who's a doctor. It's a saga about doctors and their relationships to death throughout all these wars in the Balkans."<ref name=Sun>Hamilton, Ted (25 March 2009). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120307133642/http://cornellsun.com/node/36204 "Student Artist Spotlight: Tea Bajraktarevic"] (interview). ''Cornell Daily Sun''. Archived 7 March 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>


==Reception==
==Reception==
The press reception has been good. The poet [[Charles Simic]] wrote in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' giving his endorsement to the view that "this is a remarkable first novel." He went on to say: "Téa Obreht is an extraordinarily talented writer, skilled at combining different types of narrative — from objective depiction of events to stories mixing the fabulous and the real — in a way that brings to mind the novels of [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], [[Gabriel García Márquez]], and [[Milorad Pavić (writer)|Milorad Pavić]], the Serbian author of ''[[Dictionary of the Khazars]]''.<ref>Simic, Charles (26 May 2011). [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/may/26/weird-beauty-well-told-tale/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=May+26+2011+issue&utm_content=May+26+2011+issue+CID_ce53b4c1cccb30d2e8e6564cc6 "The Weird Beauty of the Well-Told Tale"]. ''NYRB'' (nybooks.com). 26 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.</ref> According to the ''[[New Zealand Herald]]'', "Reviewers have praised Obreht's vibrant imagery and skilful interweaving of fact and folklore, ritual and superstition. British paper the ''[[Sunday Times]]'' dubbed her 'a compelling new voice'; its rival the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' 'a natural born storyteller'."<ref name="NZ_Herald_10723781">{{cite news |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10723781 |title=Introducing The Tiger's Wife |author=Sheehy, Christine |date=6 May 2011 |newspaper=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' reviewer Liesl Schillinger praised the novel, saying it was "filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand."<ref>{{cite news |last=Schillinger|first=Liesl|title=A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-tigers-wife-by-tea-obreht.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema2&pagewanted=all|accessdate=11 March 2011|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=11 March 2011}}</ref>
The poet [[Charles Simic]] wrote in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' that ''The Tiger's Wife'' "is a remarkable first novel". Simic went on to say, "Téa Obreht is an extraordinarily talented writer, skilled at combining different types of narrative — from objective depiction of events to stories mixing the fabulous and the real — in a way that brings to mind the novels of [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], [[Gabriel García Márquez]], and [[Milorad Pavić]], the Serbian author of ''[[Dictionary of the Khazars]]."''<ref name=simic>Simic, Charles (26 May 2011). [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/may/26/weird-beauty-well-told-tale/ "The Weird Beauty of the Well-Told Tale"]. ''NYRB'' (nybooks.com). Retrieved 10 May 2011.</ref> A review in ''[[The New Zealand Herald]]'' notes that, "Reviewers have praised Obreht's vibrant imagery and skilful interweaving of fact and folklore, ritual and superstition. British paper the ''[[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]]'' dubbed her 'a compelling new voice'; its rival the ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]]'' 'a natural born storyteller'."<ref name=sheehy>{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10723781|title=Fiction Addiction: Introducing The Tiger's Wife|author=Sheehy, Christine |date=6 May 2011|newspaper=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' reviewer Liesl Schillinger praised the novel, asserting that it was "filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand."<ref name=schillinger>{{cite news |last=Schillinger|first=Liesl|title=A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-tigers-wife-by-tea-obreht.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema2&pagewanted=all|accessdate=11 March 2011|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=11 March 2011}}</ref>


''The Tiger's Wife'' won the prestigious 2011 [[Orange Prize]]<ref>[http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/prize.html]. Orange Prize (orangeprize.com). Retrieved 8 June 2011. {{dead|date=April 2014}}</ref> which included a £30,000 prize, and the ‘Bessie', a limited edition bronze figurine. She was the youngest novelist ever to win the prize to date. It was a finalist for the 2011 [[National Book Award]] and the University of Wales [[Dylan Thomas Prize]],<ref name="BBC_15381124">{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15381124 |title=Dylan Thomas Prize 2011 shortlist is announced |date=20 October 2011 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref> and was a [[New York Times Bestseller]] in 2011.
''The Tiger's Wife'' won the [[Women's Prize for Fiction|Orange Prize for Fiction]] in 2011. The annual prize, recognising "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world", then included £30,000 in cash and the "Bessie", a limited edition bronze figurine. At 25, Obreht was the youngest winner of the Orange Prize at the time of her award.<ref name=2011-orange/><ref name=2011-baileys/>

In 2011 Obreht was also a finalist for the [[National Book Award for Fiction]]<ref name=nba2011/> and the [[Dylan Thomas Prize]] for English-language writers age 18 to 30.<ref name="BBC_15381124">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15381124|title=Dylan Thomas Prize 2011 shortlist is announced|date=20 October 2011|work=[[BBC News]]|accessdate=22 November 2011|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230122632/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15381124|archivedate=30 December 2011}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
{{reflist |25em}}
{{reflist |25em |refs=

<!-- awards refs, likely to be expanded -->
<ref name=2011-orange>
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130210023451/http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/archive2011.html "Téa Obreht wins 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction"] (2011 archive, contemporary). Orange Prize for Fiction (orangeprize.co.uk). Archived 10 February 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>
<ref name=2011-baileys>
[http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/title/the-tigers-wife "2011 Winner: Tea Obreht"] (2011 archive, current sponsor). Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (womensprizeforfiction.co.uk). Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>
<ref name=nba2011>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2011 "National Book Awards – 2011"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 12 April 2014.</ref>

}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Tigers Wife}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tigers Wife}}
[[Category:2011 novels]]
[[Category:2010 novels]]
[[Category:Orange Prize for Fiction winning works]]
[[Category:Novels by Téa Obreht]]
[[Category:Debut novels]]
[[Category:Weidenfeld & Nicolson books]]
[[Category:Women's Prize for Fiction-winning works]]
[[Category:Novels about tigers]]
[[Category:Novels about death]]
[[Category:Novels set in zoos]]
[[Category:2010 debut novels]]
[[Category:Balkans in fiction]]

Latest revision as of 21:37, 27 April 2024

The Tiger's Wife
Front cover of US edition
AuthorTéa Obreht
CountryUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherWeidenfeld & Nicolson[1]
Random House (US)
Publication date
2011
Media typePrint (hardcover), audiobook, eBook
Pages337 (first edition)
ISBN0-385-34383-3
OCLC629791302
LC ClassPS3615.B73 T54 2011[2]

The Tiger's Wife is the debut novel of American writer Téa Obreht. It was published in 2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a British imprint of Orion Books, and by Random House in America.[1] Set in mid 20th-century to early 21st century Balkans, it explores inter-generational dynamics between members of a medical family, and how they were involved in several wars throughout the timeframe.

Obreht won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction for The Tiger's Wife,[3] becoming the youngest winner of the prize to date, at age 25.[3] The novel was finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction[4] and the Dylan Thomas Prize.[5]

Story[edit]

The Tiger's Wife is set in an unnamed country in the Balkans, spanning the mid 20th-century to the early 21st century. It features a young doctor's relationship with her grandfather and the stories he tells her. Her grandfather retells stories about the "deathless man" who meets him several times in different places and who doesn't die, regardless of the danger he faces; and a deaf-mute girl from his childhood village who befriends a tiger that has escaped from a nearby zoo.

Background[edit]

The novel was largely written while Obreht was attending Cornell University.[6] Portions of the novel were excerpted in The New Yorker in June 2009.[7] When Obreht was asked to summarize the story by a university journalist, she replied, "It's a family saga that takes place in a fictionalized province of the Balkans. It’s about a female narrator and her relationship to her grandfather, who's a doctor. It's a saga about doctors and their relationships to death throughout all these wars in the Balkans."[8]

Reception[edit]

The poet Charles Simic wrote in The New York Review of Books that The Tiger's Wife "is a remarkable first novel". Simic went on to say, "Téa Obreht is an extraordinarily talented writer, skilled at combining different types of narrative — from objective depiction of events to stories mixing the fabulous and the real — in a way that brings to mind the novels of Mikhail Bulgakov, Gabriel García Márquez, and Milorad Pavić, the Serbian author of Dictionary of the Khazars."[9] A review in The New Zealand Herald notes that, "Reviewers have praised Obreht's vibrant imagery and skilful interweaving of fact and folklore, ritual and superstition. British paper the Sunday Times dubbed her 'a compelling new voice'; its rival the Daily Telegraph 'a natural born storyteller'."[10] The New York Times reviewer Liesl Schillinger praised the novel, asserting that it was "filled with astonishing immediacy and presence, fleshed out with detail that seems firsthand."[11]

The Tiger's Wife won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011. The annual prize, recognising "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world", then included £30,000 in cash and the "Bessie", a limited edition bronze figurine. At 25, Obreht was the youngest winner of the Orange Prize at the time of her award.[12][13]

In 2011 Obreht was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction[4] and the Dylan Thomas Prize for English-language writers age 18 to 30.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Formats and Editions of Tiger's wife". WorldCat. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  2. ^ "Tiger's wife" (US edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Orange prize 2011 goes to Téa Obreht". the Guardian. 2011-06-08. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  4. ^ a b "National Book Awards – 2011". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Dylan Thomas Prize 2011 shortlist is announced". BBC News. 20 October 2011. Archived from the original on 30 December 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  6. ^ Flanagan, Mark. "Tea Obreht". Contemporary Literature. About.com. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  7. ^ Lee, Stephan (4 March 2011). "Téa Obreht, author of 'The Tiger's Wife,' on craft, age, and early success" (interview). Entertainment Weekly. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  8. ^ Hamilton, Ted (25 March 2009). "Student Artist Spotlight: Tea Bajraktarevic" (interview). Cornell Daily Sun. Archived 7 March 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  9. ^ Simic, Charles (26 May 2011). "The Weird Beauty of the Well-Told Tale". NYRB (nybooks.com). Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  10. ^ Sheehy, Christine (6 May 2011). "Fiction Addiction: Introducing The Tiger's Wife". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  11. ^ Schillinger, Liesl (11 March 2011). "A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  12. ^ "Téa Obreht wins 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction" (2011 archive, contemporary). Orange Prize for Fiction (orangeprize.co.uk). Archived 10 February 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  13. ^ "2011 Winner: Tea Obreht" (2011 archive, current sponsor). Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (womensprizeforfiction.co.uk). Retrieved 12 April 2014.
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