Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone

Author: Abraham Verghese

Publisher: Knopf (2009)

ISBN: 0375414495

pages: 541

genre: historical fiction

4.5 (out of 5) STARS

Annotation: Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.

Summary: Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him. (www.goodreads.com)

Evaluation: Cutting for Stone is a wonderful book. I believe it fits the genre of historical fiction but it also seems like contemporary fiction. This is the type of book I have the most experience reading. I enjoy reading about "normal," real people and the difficult experiences and situations they encounter in life. This book was a great example of these things.

Read-a-likes:

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee

Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste