The Tiger Flu

Kora Ko is one of two main protagonists in The Tiger Flu. Kora has only ever known a world devastated by plague and famine. As result, she is scrappy and tough. She loves her family and her beloved pet goat Delphine, but she finds displays of emotion “corny” (13). Kora does not call her mother “mom” or “mother,” instead preferring to call her by her given name, Charlotte. As a Grist sister, she physically resembles Kirilow Groundsel. As Myra observes in Chapter 20, when looking at Kora: “The doctor’s older, yes? But otherwise, you look exactly the same. Freaky deaky” (134).

Kora has a unique lineage, one that is only revealed to her over the course of the novel. At the outset of the novel, she thinks she is just a humble potato farmer, living in exile with her mother Charlotte, her brother K2, and her uncle Wai. When she attends the Cordova School for Dancing Girls, Kora learns that her family is responsible for the creation and spread of the tiger flu, the plague that wiped out modern society. Her grandfather, Lennox Ko, the founder of the cloning company Jemini, reanimated the Caspian tiger and then purveyed “tiger wine,” an addictive substance that spread the flu throughout the world.