The youngest author included in The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” fiction issue last year, 25-year-old Tea Obreht is no doubt one of the most talked about novelists in the business right now. And her highly anticipated debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, has more than lived up to the deafening hype; it is an engrossing story that masterfully mixes realism and fantasy, exploring intricate themes of life, death, and wartime. Both Obreht and her main character are skilled storytellers, and to hear their beautifully woven narratives performed by Susan Duerden and Robin Sachs only makes it that much easier to escape into The Tiger’s Wife.

Set in an unnamed, mysterious Balkan country, The Tiger’s Wife tells the story of a special bond between Natalia Stefanovic and her recently deceased grandfather. Natalia is a physician charged with inoculating orphaned children vulnerable to disease in the war-torn countryside. She grew up very close to her grandfather, also a physician, and his sudden death in a village he had no known ties to sends her on a pilgrimage to understand the circumstances of his passing. Along the way, she remembers and discovers details of her grandfather’s past, including two stories he told her when she was a child — one of the deathless man, and another of an escaped tiger cared for by a deaf-mute girl. Obreht weaves Natalia’s story with the two fables seamlessly. It is a delicate balance of realism/science vs. myth/superstition — Duerden and Sachs guide the listener through the intricate structure with their affecting narration.

The Tiger’s Wife features a cast of dynamic, unforgettable characters, some with even supernatural qualities. Duerden and Sachs help smooth the departures from reality but also thrive in those fantastical moments (especially Sachs, in his delivery of the fables told by the grandfather). In the same vein, Duerden’s characterization of Natalia as a pragmatic physician unalarmed by the horrors of war and sickness is equally informed. However, Natalia is passionate about one thing — understanding her grandfather’s life and death. The Tiger’s Wife is an enchanting story that will stay with you long after you finish listening.