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Book Review of Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone
wantonvolunteer avatar reviewed on + 84 more book reviews


Abraham Verghese is an amazing writer who happens to be a doctor. This story is about an Indian nun who dies giving birth to twins in the Ethiopian hospital where she works. The British surgeon she assists in surgery is the father of the conjoined twins, but he falls apart and runs away rather than operate on them much less raise them. The boys grow up healthy and loved by two other hospital employees, Doctors Hema and Ghosh who raise Marion and Shiva as their own sons and eventual apprentices. The story spans continents: from Asia to Africa to North America and then back to Africa again, it is amazing.

The story is fascinating, I'm in love with all the characters, and the settings. I laughed, I learned, and I'll remember this book for a good long time.