"Cutting for Stone"

“Cutting for Stone” (Vintage, 2009), by Abraham Verghese, is a big (667-page) saga, a bestseller. I must admit it took me a while to get through it, and I read several other books while I was chipping away at this one. But I am glad I persisted. Verghese, a physican and author of the memoir “My Own Country” about working with AIDS patients in Appalachia, which I very much liked when I read it some years ago, has written a moving epic novel about characters from India and Africa who converge on Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two main characters are twin brothers, Marion and Shiva Stone; other characters are their birth parents (they are born of an illicit but touching relationship), their adopted parents, and others who work at the hospital. The brothers are extremely close, considering themselves two halves of a whole, but a betrayal tears them apart, and Marion goes to the United States for further medical training. There he is successful but still haunted by his past, in both positive and negative ways. There is much in this book about family, about immigration, about love, and about death. The relationships are close and often moving. There is also much -- sometimes too much -- about medicine, although in some cases the medical crises and procedures are very dramatic. All of this takes place against the backdrop of Ethiopian history during and after the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie; the characters of the story see this history up close, and are directly -- sometimes tragically -- affected by it. I must admit that I personally was particularly drawn to a part of the book that was only a minor part of the story: the early part in South India, where I spent my childhood. The descriptions of that area, and the feelings of those who were torn between their pasts and their futures, their countries of birth and their need to go out into the world, are evocative and moving. It’s the beginning of the summer now, so if you are looking for a high-quality and enjoyable “good read,” one that takes you to other worlds, buy this book in paperback, take it with you on vacation, and get caught up in its gripping (and generally well-written) story.