Wow, what a journey I’ve
been on for the past few months. The
cover of Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for
Stone always caught my eye at the bookstore,
but it wasn’t until recently that I picked it up. It took a very long time to read, not just
because it’s close to 700 pages, but also because the language is so beautiful
that you just want to savor every moment of it.
Cutting for Stone begins with Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Thomas Stone as strangers on
a ship. They both end up in Addis Ababa,
working at a hospital together, and secretly fall in love with each other. Sister does not tell anyone that she is
pregnant and dies giving birth to twins. Stone doesn’t
want anything to do with the babies who caused Sister’s death. He simply disappears for years and years, and
Hema and Ghosh (who also work at the hospital) raise the two boys as their
own. The reader literally follows the
boys throughout their lives, from birth all the way up to their adult lives as
doctors. And believe me, you’ll be so
glad you took this journey with them.
This is not a frivolous
novel for the beach or vacation, but it will take you on a roller coaster ride,
making you feel every emotion there is. I highly recommend Cutting for Stone for the gorgeous read it is.
