ACS Common Read

Launching our first Common Read of the year today: The Tiger's Wife. Here is my invite to students, staff , and friends:

        I think I might need to label this edition of our ACS Common Read an Uncommon Read. I say this because every 20 or 30 books or so, one encounters, well, just a blast of bravura; a book where the author’s storytelling ability matches a, perhaps, once-in-a-lifetime leap of fearless imagination to produce, if not a beautiful book, one that ensnares you in a world you know cannot be, but that makes a willing believer of you while within its pages.
   
    At the ripe old age of 25, Tea Obreht wrote The Tiger’s Wife; a story set in a Balkan landscape torn by ethnic violence. Within this unrest, our protagonist proceeds on an Homeric journey to recover the body her grandfather; missing under suspicious circumstances. The terrain of her quest is inhabited with the tales and superstitions of her growing up which frame the narrative with hauntingly surreal episodes that puzzle, but ultimately guide her to understanding.

    I think this is an astonishing book.