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Cutting for Stone:

A Novel
Front Cover
296 Reviews
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009 - Fiction - 541 pages
A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

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.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

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5 stars
141
4 stars
101
3 stars
35
2 stars
9
1 star
8

And, an amazing ending. - Goodreads
Phenomenal story and writing. - Goodreads
It's also a good novel with lots of plot twists. - Goodreads
I can see that in the writing. - Goodreads
Their insights and opinions contributed greatly. - Goodreads

Review: Cutting for Stone

User Review  - Kristin - Goodreads

Writing: 3 Story: 2 Satisfaction: 2 Verghese is a great writer. His characters have a lot of depth and his settings are real enough to sink into. The one problem that I had is that he tends to go on ... Read full review

Review: Cutting for Stone

User Review  - Mohamed - Goodreads

Once a decade, there's a book that makes you think about it long and hard after you read it. This book is one of those and then some more. Keeping aside the fact that the the story is exceptionally ... Read full review

All 296 reviews »

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About the author (2009)

Abraham Verghese is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, where he is now an adjunct professor. He is the author of My Own Country, a 1994 NBCC Finalist and a Time Best Book of the Year, and The Tennis Partner, a New York Times Notable Book. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has published essays and short stories that have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Granta, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. He lives in Palo Alto, California.

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