I chose this book for our most recent book club selection based on glowing reviews from critics and the fact that it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Typically we all enjoy reading about other cultures and appreciate novels with a bit of truth (in place or time). We agreed that the sections about the deathless man and the sections about the tiger (and the tiger's wife) were enjoyable, but there was something missing when the author brought in the granddaughter and tried to tie the pieces together. We were waiting to learn more about what she was doing as a physician or her relationship with her friend; in the end, it might have been much better to leave the reader with less information, if she could not expand more. I understand the creative wish to leave the reader with more questions and to come to their own conclusions, but because large parts of this book rambled on without much content, and other parts painted a vivid picture of a time and place most of us are unfamiliar with -- it just left us all disappointed.