Five fiercely good reads for the Tiger year

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (2016)

By Ken Liu

The title short story won all 3 major American awards for science fiction and fantasy writing: the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award.

It tells the story of an American-born Chinese boy, born in the year of the Tiger, who resents his China-born mother because of her poor English. His mother, however, has a special gift of turning origami animals into living, breathing creatures, a skill she learnt in her village.

Other titles in Liu's first short story collection are equally compelling.

The Night Tiger (2019)

By Yangsze Choo

Set is 1930s Malaya, this fantastical page-turner by Malaysian writer Choo became a New York Times bestseller after actress Reese Witherspoon recommended it for her bookclub. It draws on the popular Malayan myth of were-tigers to tell the story of a dance hostess, an 11-year-old boy and a strange amputated finger.

Today, were-tigers are believed to still exist in the mountainous areas of Gunung Angsi in Negri Sembilan and Gunung Ledang in Johor.

Man Tiger (2015)

By Eka Kurniawan

Indonesia's most famous contemporary author also draws on the tradition of were-tigers in this unforgettable novel that was nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

It centres on a man who is unaware that he carries the spirit of a white tiger, a supernatural legacy of his grandfather. But when events in his village come to a head, the long dormant tiger spirit takes over, turning him into a force of destruction.

When You Trap A Tiger (2021)

By Tae Keller

Keller's bestselling book won the 2021 Newbery Medal for children's literature. But many adults will probably enjoy this novel as much as they might enjoy Roald Dahl and JK Rowling's children's books.

The plot revolves around a girl who moves into the home of her grandmother when the latter falls sick. But the girl soon meets a magical tiger that wants to make a deal with her - help the tiger find some once-stolen items and, in return, the tiger will cure the grandmother.

Life Of Pi (2001)

By Yann Martel

The Man Booker Prize winner that was also made into an Oscar-winning film is an astounding tale about a man named Pi, who claims he survived a shipwreck in his youth by sharing a life-boat with a Bengal tiger that had eaten another animal on the boat.

Pi, we soon learn, is an unreliable narrator, and we're left to speculate whether he is telling the truth - or whether he himself is the Tiger that had murdered and eaten another survivor to stay alive.

The book pays tribute to the power of stories in trauma healing.