There were aspects of The Tiger's Wife which really enjoyed. Tea Obreht is a skilful writer and a great story teller. There's a real feeling of yarns told round a campfire about the whole book, a collection of voices sharing recollections, remembered history and myth, with some stories small and complete, while others are long and fractured. While some of those individual stories were compelling, together they don't really make a novel. For me it just didn't hang together as a totally satisfying read. And I was worried about the slightly portentous symbolism of the tiger, the tiger's wife and the deathless man. Were they supposed to represent something I just couldn't fathom? Perhaps someone can explain on Monday.