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
    9,912
  • 4 Stars
    2,214
  • 3 Stars
    632
  • 2 Stars
    216
  • 1 Stars
    186
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8,276
  • 4 Stars
    1,142
  • 3 Stars
    280
  • 2 Stars
    70
  • 1 Stars
    69
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7,763
  • 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

Unique!

Not my normal genre but surprising story with very real characters and interesting insight into the medical field. Great performance.

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

Riveting Story

This is my first Audible novel by Abraham Verghese but it will not be my last. He is a masterful story teller. The characters are richly developed and the story so powerful. As with all great books this story will be hard to forget.

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

Amazing epic story

I loved this book and was sad to see it end. Great writing and narration. I learned so much about Ethiopian history and medical history. So many unexpected twists and turns!

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

Great character development

The story moves beautifully thru time and takes you across continents you may never see, enjoy the adventure.

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

Outstanding book!

Great story, interesting perspective and engaging characters. I could feel myself transported, helped by a wonderful reader.. Thank you.

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

My Favorite Book by Verghese

I absolutelyfell in love with the characters and was moved by their intricate and delicate relationships. I also really enjoy the medical knowledge that is at the heart of each of this author's stories. I also love the history and descriptions of the different cultures that are in each of his books. This was an incredible journey!

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

Beautifully Crafted Story

I loved everything about this complicated, yet simple, story of life, love and loss. The ending was perfect.

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

Best cook I ever read!

Such an amazing story every piece fit together perfectly. I can’t get over the colorful descriptions, it felt like you were there. I’m sure I will leave it again and tell everyone about 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

Loved his wisdom and writing

I loved his insights and descriptions of the characters which brought them to life in their virtues and character defects.

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

Emotion invoking

Absolutely loved the deep description and epic story telling. He is a fantastic author. I felt like i was part of the story i was so lost in it. Highly recommend. There are some tear jerking scenes if that something you avoid

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!