Importance of The City

The unnamed major city in what appears to be an eastern European country like the former Yugoslavia is the setting for much of the narrative's action. It is there that Natalia and her grandparents make their home for some time, it is there that she and her grandfather first visit tigers, and it is there where, after the war is over, the zoo's remaining animals, including the tigers, attack themselves in frustration, rage, confusion and in some cases, a kind of madness.