Sample

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Cutting for Stone

By: Abraham Verghese
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.25

Buy for $29.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of The Covenant of Water: A beautifully written, page-turning family saga of Ethiopia and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. • “Filled with mystical scenes and deeply felt characters.... Verghese is something of a magician as a novelist.” —USA Today

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

This sweeping, emotionally riveting novel that "shows how history and landscape and accidents of birth conspire to create the story of a single life" (Los Angeles Times).

©2009 Abraham Verghese (P)2009 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Abraham Verghese is a doctor, an accomplished memoirist and, as he proves in Cutting for Stone, something of a magician as a novelist. This sprawling, 50-year epic begins with a touch of alchemy: the birth of conjoined twins to an Indian nun in an Ethiopian hospital in 1954. The likely father, a British surgeon, flees upon the mother’s death, and the (now separated) baby boys are adopted by a loving Indian couple who run the hospital. Filled with mystical scenes and deeply felt characters–and opening a fascinating window onto the Third World–Cutting for Stone is an underdog and a winner. Shades of Slumdog Millionaire.”–Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today

“A novel set in Africa bears a heavy burden. The author must bring the continent home to help the reader sit in a chair and imagine vast, ancient, sorrowful, beautiful Africa. In the last decade I’ve read books narrated by characters homesick for Africa; books by or about child soldiers; books about politics; books full of splintering history.... Lush and exotic . . . richly written.”–Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

“Any doubts you might harbor about a 534-page first novel by a physician in his 50s will be allayed in the first few pages of this marvelous book. Abraham Verghese has written two graceful memoirs, but Cutting for Stone, his wildly imaginative fictional debut, is looser, bigger, even better.... The doctor in him sees the luminous beauty of the physician’s calling; the artist recognizes that there remain wounds no surgeon can men. ‘Where silk and steel fail, story must succeed,’ Marion muses. This one does.”–Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly; Grade: A

What listeners say about Cutting for Stone

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9,916
  • 4 Stars
    2,214
  • 3 Stars
    632
  • 2 Stars
    216
  • 1 Stars
    186
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8,280
  • 4 Stars
    1,142
  • 3 Stars
    280
  • 2 Stars
    70
  • 1 Stars
    69
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7,767
  • 4 Stars
    1,423
  • 3 Stars
    407
  • 2 Stars
    128
  • 1 Stars
    108

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very good book

I really enjoyed this book. I have a medical background so it may be a bit too much for more non medical people. The story was one of love, family, and forgiveness. Truly a very moving well written book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional

This was the best book I have read. The reader Abraham Verghese was so exceptional I found myself wanting to be stuck in traffic so I could listen longer. I highly recommend this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous!

Would you consider the audio edition of Cutting for Stone to be better than the print version?

I had this on my wish list for a long time. I was hesitant because it was two credits. All I can say was it was worth it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

FABULOUS

Where does Cutting for Stone rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The best!!

What other book might you compare Cutting for Stone to and why?

Golden Finch - many characters and weaving story lines...

What about Sunil Malhotra’s performance did you like?

How he portrayed the different "voices" of the twins to make them unique.

Who was the most memorable character of Cutting for Stone and why?

Gosh!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Masterful

Like riding a wave that you didn't want to end! A masterful performance and story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

"Thou shalt not cut for stone!"

This novel is dramatic some of the most memorable dialogue within is “God will judge us, Mr. Harris by--by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. I don’t think God cares what doctrine we embrace. By visiting patients in their home. By helping them come to terms with their illness. I could heal when I could not cure… You live it forward but understand it backward.” Wisdom within (though its a novel) much is based on non-fiction. Delight to my ears. Buy, listen and learn.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good listen

If you could sum up Cutting for Stone in three words, what would they be?

Great story

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cutting for Stone?

Birth of twins

Which scene was your favorite?

Gosh talk with Marion as he was dying

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I only had the time

Any additional comments?

Would recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

Th narrator is excellent, and the book is truly amazing. What a wonderful cast of characters and plot. This book goes into my list of the top 20 books I have ever read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great story and outstanding narration

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, would definitely recommend.

Any additional comments?

I listened to this book while commuting to work (an hour each way) and boy was my travel in traffic exciting during these days! It's a very beautiful and moving book. Not a traditional easy to read/listen romance but an actually deep and thoughtful piece of literature. I enjoyed it so much that I even looked up the author and the narrator for more of their work and I got so interested in the story itself that I went ahead to research if it was based on a true story!
Get it, you'll enjoy it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic read

What an elegant and captivating work of fiction. Such a unique story set in a faraway land with so much medical knowledge that instills credibility in the characters without boring the reader. I was left wanting a few more chapters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!