The Tigers Wife by Tea Obreth

The Tiger's Wife is set in an unnamed Balkan country after a civil war. Natalia is a doctor who travels across the new border to inoculate orphans. While there, locals dig up a vineyard looking for a dead relative. Her visit also coincides with her grandfather's death. She knew he was dying of cancer, but she doesn't understand why he traveled to a remote village to die alone. While trying to resolve this mystery, she remembers two of the tales he used to tell her. The first was a "deathless man," who never seemed to grow old. The other was about a tiger that escaped from a zoo during the Nazi invasion. It found a home in the forest outside the village. The villagers feared the tiger, except for two: an abused, deaf-mute woman, and a young boy who would become her grandfather. Tea Obreht's debut novel has received positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "Ms. Obreht has not only made a precocious debut, but she has also written a richly textured and searing novel."