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Cutting for Stone  By  cover art

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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Review of booking

Excellent loved every minute. Could not stop being involved with twist and turn as the characters evolved.

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Loved this book!

A book with depth providing a window into Ethiopian culture. It’s honest and compelling as it brings you on a journey through the various facets of evolving relationships among family, friends, and enemies.
Stick with it as it felt a little slow in the beginning-you will be glad you did!
The reader is outstanding!

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The story is amazing.

I cannot say bough great things about this book. It grabbed me from the start and kept me intrigued throughout. I just loved this book! Don’t be intimidated by the length. Trust me, when it’s over you will wish there was more!

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Beautiful story

There could have been a more perfect narrator. The voices and accents he used were just enough to make the story more interesting without being too much. I’m usually not a fane of longer stories but this one kept me intrigued the whole way through. If you are in medicine the terminology and descriptions of surgeries were an added bonus. If you are not that’s the only part that may be a bit much.

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Interesting story

It tells a story that is very different. It was a nice change bc I was not able to anticipate where it was going. At times it was a little slow and wordy. Overall I recommend it

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Another great read!

Thank you for another amazing book! Once again, I was teleported to another place and completely immersed in this incredible story.

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Great book

A tad slow in the middle but the payoff at the end was worth it. What a beautiful writer Verghese is. His ability to convey emotions and paint a picture in your mind is 👌🏼

Great narration. I do think I prefer Covenant of Water just a tad bit more, as it wasn’t as slow in the middle.

Highly recommend!

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Excellent

Different cultures, continents, the practice of medicine, thoughtful, gentle, selfish, explosive emotions. This was just excellent.

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An amazing story

The narrater was fabulous and the story was heartfelt, emotional and educational. It was hard to put down.

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Totally Engaging and Brilliant

I finished the author’s remarkable ‘A Covenant of Water’ last month, and - hungry for more - delved into this book to discover another amazing saga. I am so picky about my fiction, but this author is a master at weaving heartfelt and authentic stories within historical events. Verghese is a modern day Scheherazade.

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