Cutting for Stone

A Novel

By: Abraham Verghese

Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra

Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins

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

Masterful

I loved this book, hated for it to end. The story was incredible, the characters were written so beautifully, as if you knew them. The story took place in Ethiopia and the United States though the book is character driven as opposed to place.
The story was narrated beautifully, a soothing and mesmerizing accent throughout. He tells of a family though not all born to this wonderful make-shift family and how they treated patients in an area that was not conducive to treating the illnesses, nor the “doctors” having the knowledge or correct tools needed. But they do what they can with determined dedication.
I highly recommend this book and would urge you to Listen to it, some books are “born” to be listened to, this would be at the top of my list

A Glorious Book!

What a wonderful book—Three-dimensional characters that I came to care about and in some cases, love. A vivid setting that draws on historical events. A plot that kept me engaged. It is hard to find a more rewarding book. Highly recommend!

Love this book!

This is now an all time favorite! The story kept me mesmerized from beginning to end.

Didn’t want it to end!

Loved the story especially having a medical background and living in Asia for 5 years-I loved the tension between the brothers and wondered how it might end, I was very satisfied with the resolution between them and how the story weaved thru the years on different continents!

Enjoyed it

I enjoyed this story. I've recommended it to two friends and my coworker's book club.

4th time listening - my all time favorite!

This is my favorite book of all time. The story is riveting and the narrator captures the emotion and depth of the characters better than any other. Highly recommend.

A keeper

a wonderful story with the most amazing reader. I’ve listened to it more than once whenever I am unable to sleep I turn it on and listen again no matter where in the story and I am blessed+ soothed and refreshed. The reader is a treasure

Don’t miss!

I absolutely loved this book. Was a great story and the narration was wonderful! Don’t let the length of it deter you. It went by too fast, I was sorry when it ended.

Made a surgical impression

So many of our human emotions, love, fear, lust, loyalty, anger, resentment, satisfaction, joy, confusion, grief, bitterness, forgiveness, are all woven in and out of this complex and rich story with great authenticity. The extra bonus was a look into Ethiopian history and the singular challenges of medicine in a third world country. The fully formed characters will remain as real people in my mind for years to come.

MY BOOK OF THE YEAR

So many things about this book are amazing that it's hard to sort them out. The story about what it means to be a twin, the story of actually growing up in a medical school, a story of love both lost and found, and a story of supreme sacrifice. I recommend this book, and consider it the best book I've read this year.