Chapter 2 Summary

"The War - Gavran Gaile"

Natalia comments in narration that "everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger's wife, and the story of the Deathless Man" (see "Quotes," p. 32). She then describes how the war in her part of Eastern Europe had been building for years, how she and her grandfather had continued their ritual of visiting the tigers long after she grew into adolescence and became bored with it, and how the zoo with the tiger exhibit was closed shortly after the war started. She also comments on how, as the result of the growing distance between her and her grandfather, she didn't understand how deeply the loss of opportunity to visit the tigers affected him, who remained convinced the war would not last (see "Quotes," p.42).

Natalia then describes how, during the war, her...