Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese
From India to Ethiopia to America, Cutting for Stone, is an epic story that captured my attention and held it for the entire 658 pages! Although it's a work of fiction, it reads more like a memoir.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin boys born in a mission hospital in Addis Ababa to a nursing nun from India who dies in childbirth and a British surgeon who disappears immediately after their birth. Raised on the hospital compound by two Indian doctors, the boys grow up with a love for medicine and though their pathways are very different, both eventually become doctors.
This emotional and complex family drama combines elements of Indian and Ethiopian culture, coming of age, third world medicine, political revolution, and emigration. It's a tale of abandonment, betrayal, loss, loneliness, love, lust, envy, friendship, disease, poverty, education, and so much more. Most of all it's a story about home, family, and belonging.
The author, Abraham Verghese, is a physician, a professor, and Vice Chair of Education at Stanford University Medical School. Born of Indian parents who were teachers in Ethiopia, he grew up near Addis Ababa and began his medical training there before emigrating to the United States. I'm always amazed when a doctor has time to write anything other than medical papers and reports, but Verghese has authored four best-selling books; two memoirs and two novels.
Cutting for Stone contains a lot of medical detail. Other than what I've learned as a patient, I have no medical background or knowledge, but I found that aspect of the story quite fascinating. Verghese has a gift for describing medical procedures in such a way that they are interesting, easily understood, and while sometimes quite graphic, not gross at all.
I tend to agree with the Goodreads reviewer who wrote, "It is statistically improbable that I will read a book as good as this one anytime soon."
No comments:
Post a Comment