The Tiger's Wife

Just as there are some movies whose main purpose seems to be garnering Academy Award nominations if not the awards themselves -- The King's English is a good example of the genre -- there are some novels that must have as part of their marketing strategy their suitability for your more literate reading groups, those that are not going to be reading The Help but are unlikely to plan an intensive investigation of The Magic Mountain.

Enter Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife. Great backstory -- first novel by author under 30, born in Belgrade but U.S. resident since age of 12. Elegant prose style. A plot chockablock with talking points -- Balkan history, folk beliefs, magic realism, the present infused with the past. As I was reading it I received in the mail an announcement of the Spring lunch time discussion group at the Dallas Institute for the Humanities. The Tiger's Wifewas first on the list.