A review by ergative
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

5.0

 This was a wonderful novella about how stories are passed on and changed across people and cultures. A wandering cleric whose order collects knowledge accompanied by a mammoth-herder, is trapped by a trio of tigers, and bargains for their lives with the offer to tell a tale that the tigers also know. But, the tigers warn, the cleric must tell the tale properly or get eaten. But the cleric can only tell the tale as it was told to them, and so begs that the tigers let them know where they get it wrong. And so we get to hear the tale of tiger-human love, interspersed with the tigers' commentaries about what was actually happening. Scenes differ, are told from the human's perspective by the cleric, and from the tiger's perspective when the tigers offer corrections. One of the tigers starts enjoying the poetry that comes up in the humans tales, expresses a preference for the human version, and is chastised by her sisters. The mammoth-herder gets annoyed by the poetry, and remarks that the tiger's version is better, and contains promises of love that her grandfather uses with her grandmother. This is a gem of a tale. I can't recommend it highly enough.