When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain – Nghi Vo

I’m really enjoying this series, which is about the monk Chih, who travels through a land much like China, recording tales to bring back to their monastery. Chih hires one of the mammoth scouts to take them through a mountain pass – while on their journey, they encounter three hungry tigers. Who can also talk.

Chih is able to buy their lives by agreeing to tell the human version of the tale of the tiger Ho Thi Thao and her human wife, Dieu. What follows is classic example of the differences two different cultures can make of the exact same story. It’s a wonderfully drawn tale – it absolutely doesn’t matter that it’s set in an alternate fantasy world to our own, and that one of the two peoples involved are tigers. It’s just a great fable. I can’t wait for the next novella in this series.