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 storyteller!

Stayed up all night listening - story has so many turns and the medical details are perfectly contextualized and clear to understand. The human and spiritual elements touch your heart.

Great story

Narrator was excellent
Story was epic and moving
Rich characters and insightful examination of the flawed human experience

Wisdom

I was transported to a different world and became a part of it too! Beautifully written. Thank you A.V.

Excellent story

Cutting for Stone so well written and awesome detail with unexpected twist and turns. Truly enjoyed,

Seeing through the eyes of an Indian man

I loved this story. It was well told and well performed. But primarily because it was written by and about a person from a very different culture.

Thank you for the insight to another culture.

The themes of this book are woven together so beautifully

Mesmerizing. I cannot remember reading a book that had me in silent tears as the story unfolded.

Review of booking

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

Incredibly moving… a masterpiece of work and heart.

After reading Abraham’s book, the covenant of water I needed more from him. He is an incredibly gifted and beautiful writer cutting for Stone is a journey that will move your heart and your eyes to tears. Thank you, Abraham again.

Beautiful writing

Everything about this story carried me away to the unknown world of a foreign land, a history unknown and characters that I love now as my own. The way that Vergese paints with words moved me to tears and always WOW'ed! at something new revealed. Every doctor should read this book and learn about great medical care and compassion for all people. Ethiopia, a country I will never see, lives in me now because of Shiva-Marion.

Wonderfully written story

I thoroughly enjoyed this story written from the perspective of a different Cultural viewpoint. Beautifully written, thoughtful prose and genuine truthful, feeling throughout the story.