About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
Don't judge this book by its cover. Cutting for Stone is a masterful first work of fiction by Abraham Verghese. Not since Khaled Hosseini debuted with The Kite Runner has their been a novel that could and should capture the hearts of people around the world.
Pros
- Brilliantly detailed story of Marion and Shiva, two boys inexplicably born to an Indian nun.
- Richly drawn characters that love, deceive, encourage, betray, cut and bleed, live or die.
- Verghese brings a sharp and detailed surgical eye to the great theater where we all are players.
- This is a must read for 2009 for fans of literary fiction.
Cons
- The cover reflects a generic American story of two boys; this is much more.
Description
- 'Cutting for Stone' by Abraham Verghese was first published in February 2009.
- Publisher: Knopf
- 534 pages
Guide Review - 'Cutting for Stone' by Abraham Verghese - Book Review
With Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese immediately places himself as a budding new novelist to watch. While he respectfully acknowledges his friend and mentor John Irving as his greatest influence, I would argue that Cutting for Stone could stand with the best of Irving's classic works, if not rise above them.
Cutting for Stone begins with Sister Mary Joseph Praise and how her course was changed to arrive at Missing Hospital in Ethiopia. The compass that led her there is a talented young doctor named Thomas Stone whom she nursed back to health aboard a ship on her way to Africa.
They become part of a blessed medical team at Missing only to discover that Sister Mary Joseph Praise is shockingly pregnant, about to deliver twins, and the complications of delivery could kill her.
The story of Thomas Stone and Sister Mary Joseph Praise and the shocking outcome of the birth is only the first third of this breathtaking story. As the two twin boys, Marion and Shiva, enter the world, they will magically compose a new family at this hospital nestled in rebellion torn Ethiopia, a unique mix of people brought together by love and loss. Cutting for Stone is a story that exposes what's missing in all its characters lives and strives to heal with reconciliation and redemption.