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Cutting for Stone

By: Abraham Verghese
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
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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

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A simply must read

Having just finished this book I’m almost speechless. To say I love this read is not enough. It’s all at once touching, gut wrenching, emotional and even educational. It brought back good and not so good memories of my own medical training. You don’t have to be in medicine to enjoy this. There’s something for everyone. It’s masterful and wonderful.

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Sublime

Perfection in all aspects! A masterpiece. I loved the development of characters, the story, the history, and the humanism. I laughed and cried as I read this novel and enjoyed every sentence and paragraph. The writing is superbe.

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Amazing narration

The story is wonderfully written and engaging on top of that the narrator is gifted in bringing to life the distinct personalities and accents of the characters. Bravo

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Wonderful

What a a journey- - family , love heartache
This book is mesmerizing- read it listen to it but do it

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Wow!!!

This is the best book I've listened to all year. Thank you to Abraham Verghese for writing it and to Sunil Malhotra for bringing this amazing book to life.

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Challenging & Beautiful

This is no easy listen. As this complex and wonderfully crafted story builds layer after layer I found myself becoming more engaged & focused. By the end of the story I was emotionally connected in a way that I find rare in fiction.
It is also a wonderful gift to at least for a while spend time with 3rd world characters who are not stereotyped but seem to be complete people.
Bravo.

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A mehta

During my listening I felt like I was part of the family of Shiva and Marian ! I was drawn completely into it. What details! Excellent penmanship! What a sensitive writing! Too many hidden messages!

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One of my favorite books

An exquisite book. I just read it for the second time and I plan on reading everything this author has written.

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Epic story

What a great Listen it was never tiring full of humor Very well told story. Great performance by all.

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Amazing

I read Covenant of Water before Cutting for Stone. Both books are wonderful but I enjoyed Cutting for Stone more.

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