Cutting for Stone

Description: Marion and Shiva Stone are born from the unexpected union of Sister Mary Joseph, a gentle Malayali nurse, and Thomas Stone, a brilliant, intense British surgeon. A union so mysterious that no one at the Missing hospital in Addis Ababa, where the two worked in such tandem—not even Thomas—can quite fathom how the pure-hearted Sister Mary is with child. The traumatic events that follow leave the boys orphaned; they are raised by two Indian doctors at Missing. Here, Marion and Shiva grow up in a world of medicine, learning the curiosities of sinew and muscle, of the astonishing workings of the human body. Outside the hospital, the politics of Ethiopia rages on: failed coups, student agitations, and ultimately the deposing of the emperor Haile Selassie. And in the midst of all of this, the twins have a falling out about a beautiful young woman; a conflict so bitter that it leads Marion to flee his adopted country. Marion makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded Bronx hospital. But when the past catches up with him—nearly destroying him—Marion must trust his life to the two men he never thought he would see again: the brother who betrayed him and the surgeon father who abandoned him. Moving from Madras to Ethiopia to America, from the 1940s to the present day, Cutting for Stone is vast, dramatic and unforgettable. No contemporary novelist has written as superbly about the human body, or as movingly about the world of medicine and its connection to love and loss. It is a magnificent achievement.
About the Author
Abraham Verghese is a physician and the author of two acclaimed books of non-fiction, The Tennis Partner and My Own Country. A Malayali, he was born and raised in Ethiopia. Dr Verghese attended Madras Christian College and later Madras Medical College, and since then has studied and worked in USA. He is currently Professor of Internal Medicine and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his essays and short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Granta. He lives in Palo Alto, California.