Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese

Dr. Abraham Verghese turns his remarkable empathy into powerful fiction in this story that draws on his medical training, his years of practice, and his childhood in Ethiopia. The principal narrator of Cutting For Stone (Knopf, $26.95) is Marion Praise Stone, one of a set of identical twins born to a dying nurse, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, in Addis Ababa in the early 1950s. The father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappeared immediately after their birth, leaving the twins to be raised by Dr. Hemlatha and Dr. Ghosh, who followed Hema to Addis to work in the mission hospital. The backdrop is Ethiopia’s deteriorating political situation during and after Haile Selassie’s regime. Verghese’s capacity for empathy was notable in his previous nonfiction, as was his interest in the human condition. But to spin an imaginative tale is a talent of a different order, and he has exceeded expectation. There is great assurance in Verghese’s writing and ebullience in his storytelling.


With Cutting For Stone (Knopf, $26.95), Abraham Verghese has written a totally absorbing 500-plus page story that draws on his medical training, his life as an immigrant physician in the U.S., and his childhood and youth in Ethiopia. The novel is narrated by Marion Praise Stone, one of a set of identical twin boys born to a dying nurse, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, in Addis Ababa in the early ’50s. The father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappeared immediately after their birth, leaving the twins to be raised by Dr. Hemlatha and Dr. Ghosh, who followed Hema to Addis to work in the mission hospital. The backdrop is Ethiopia’s deteriorating political situation during and after Haille Sellassie’s regime. Verghese’s capacity for empathy was notable in his previous nonfiction, as was his interest in the human condition. But to spin an imaginative tale is a talent of a different order and he has exceeded expectation. There is such assurance in Verghese’s writing and ebullience in his storytelling.

 

Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780375714368
Availability: In Stock—Click for Locations
Published: Vintage - January 26th, 2010