A gripping, beautifully written example of ‘cli-fi’, a genre of fictional stories dealing with the very real environmental issues. Tiger follows Frieda (the addict doctor), Tomas (the smouldering conservationist) and Edit (survivalist, Mother and certified badass) as their lives become inextricably tied to the lives of a specific family of Siberian tigers.

There are strengths to each of the overlapping narratives but this book really finds its stride and the peak of its beautiful prose when we leave the South-West of England and join the tigers in their native habitat which Polly Clark does a stunning job of bringing vividly to life.

The descriptions and perspective of the tigers themselves left me with goosebumps. Powerful, majestic, unpredictable and dangerous. These are the creatures as narrated to us by David Attenborough but without the dangerous, sharper edges sanded down for the comfort of a Sunday night viewer.

Emotive, compelling and gripping. I think the start could have been a little stronger and the manner in which the various threads were brought together at the end felt a little rushed but otherwise a fantastic book. Highly recommend - 4.5 🌟 from me.

Pretty sure I bought the physical copy myself but a big thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for providing me with a free electronic copy so I was able to read this on holiday.