Think of those stories that transport you to another time and place, whether Dickens’ 19th century England with its tricksters and back-alleys or the Haitian hills and Northampton homes described in the modern day memoirs of Tracy Kidder. When an author truly captures a place and time, their books offer a thrilling escape and an exciting adventure.
Abraham Verghese has always been recommended to me as an author who offered that kind of reward. His essays were lauded as works that could be enjoyed universally, and his memoir, My Own Country, was praised by Publishers Weekly as “a memorable tale that both captures and transcends time and place.” So you can imagine my consternation, as a bookseller and as a reader, when there always seemed to be one other book I had to get to before Verghese (not that I ever grow tired of the onslaught of books, just that I ache with the adage, “so many books, so little time”). That is why, when I received Verghese’s debut novel in the mail, I jumped at the chance to read it.
Cutting For Stone is a tale of twin brothers, Shiva and Marion, orphaned by the death of their mother, a nun, and the disappearance of their father, a doctor at the mission hospital where they are born. The hospital, called Missing, is where the boys are raised, adopted by two members of the staff who struggle to rear them among the tragic excitement and turmoil of Addis Ababa. Marion serves as narrator to his and Shiva’s story as they grow up, become doctors themselves and move from Missing out into the world.
It could have been one of a slew of medical fiction or an unnecessary addition to our Adventure Fiction section. Instead, Cutting For Stone delves deep into the conflict and tension that is often borne of tight quarters and political strife. The hospital at Missing serves as a metaphor for what gets lost in the shuffle of life and love and friends and family.
Using the rich and varied backdrops of India, Ethiopia and New York, Verghese captures characters and landscape like some amazing hybrid of John Irving and Philip Caputo. Cutting For Stone reads like a modern classic, marked by tragedy, humor and the strangest of coincidences. I finished the novel and felt that I had visited places that I had never been and befriended people that I will never meet. A story of healing and of heartbreak, loyalty and love, Cutting For Stone is one of the more dramatic and moving pieces of literature I have come across in some time. Rest assured that Verghese’s other work is the next thing I plan to get to. He is truly a remarkable talent.
Abraham Verghese will be at BookPeople on Thursday, February 19th at 7pm.
BookPeople 