What is the theme in The Tiger's Wife: A Novel by Tea Obreht?

The nature of death is a theme in this story.At the same time as so many of the characters are struggling simply to live, and while many are struggling to live according to the dictates and desires of their fundamental identity, the narrative is also thematically focused on aspects of death - how people view it, how people approach it, how people experience its aftermath. The primary manifestation of this theme is in the character of the Deathless Man, whose descriptions of the different ways in which different people experience death, and his explanations of why those different ways exist, in many ways provide a glimpse into what is arguably one of the two most universal human experiences, the second being birth. Interestingly, there are very few discussions of and/or references to the event itself, and when there are, the reference is either passing, tied into folklore, or both.