The Tiger's Wife

This chapter tells the story of Luka, Galina’s butcher and husband to the tiger’s wife. When Luka returns from the unsuccessful tiger hunt that ended with the blacksmith’s death, he beats his wife for luring the tiger into the village using his meat, dislocating her shoulder and burning her hands on the stove. Everyone in the village knows that he batters his wife, but no one ever intervenes.

Natalia tells the story of his earlier life to explain why he batters his wife.

Born in Galina as the sixth son of the butcher Korčul, Luka trained in his father’s trade, but revered his mother’s world—one of education, travel, history, and knowledge of the wider world. When Luka fails the familial rite of passage bull slaughter, his father breaks his arm in a fit of rage, adding that injury to his broken ribs and concussion. As he recovers, Luka buys a gusla and teaches himself to play it. Soon, he is writing and singing love songs. He leaves home at sixteen to travel to the nearby city of Sarobor to become a professional musician, a guslar.

He soon gains entry into the world of musicians who gather and play each night on a bridge, challenging each other to musical duels.