A sweeping, emotionally riveting novel with over one million copies sold—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. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and … preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.
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Took awhile to get into the story but once I did I was hooked.
I enjoyed and very interesting. I could read it again.
Amazing!!!
One of best books I’ve read.
This story will stay with you long, long after reading it.
A friend said to me “I just finished the best book I ever read” and she handed me “Cutting For Stone”. It was everything she articulated and more! An incredible story, so interesting on so many levels, characters that I felt I knew and came to care about, and educational all in one novel! Highly recommend!!!
One of the best books I have ever read. As a nurse, I loved the medical aspects. I enjoy reading about new cultures, places. Read it twice. Still think it is fantastic.
Great character development.
Exceptional writing with expertly drawn characters. A brilliant story about belonging that defines the meaning of family. Our wounds make us vulnerable and provoke our soul’s evolution. Those closest to us, may hurt us the most and yet their love will ultimately save us. A gorgeous must read novel!
There are many memorable quotes. Here is one I like that is about memory. Memory and the stories we tell ourselves are themes in my own writing.
“How cruel it is that this memory should surface in a winter storm so long after she is dead. How cruel to have this fleeting, fragmented vision, seen through an ice-crusted window, then to wonder if it is real, or if it is the perturbation of a brain undone by alcohol. He has reassembled the memory like a shattered relic, and it is finally whole; and still he has doubts. He will never see her more clearly than that night. When he recalls it in later years, he will wonder if he is distorting it, embellishing it, because each time he consciously recalls her, that forms a new memory, a new imprint to be stacked on top of the previous one, He fears that too much handling will make it crumble.”
― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
Best book I have ever read
Fascinating depiction of the medical profession in different continents over many years, and an in depth look at how the personalities around us shape who we are and what we do.
Just an all around good read about people, places and issues that would never have come my way otherwise.
Amazing book. Beautifully written. An unforgettable saga of love and the relationship of two twin brothers. I could not put this book down. I love when you come away from a book having learned something about a world with no relation to your own or learn about a subject, in this case, medicine, which I have little or no knowledge. Loved it!
Great story
Probably my favorite novel! It’s not a love story but an epic tale of love and loss. It’s intelligently and beautifully written with interesting and well developed characters.
This story was an epic novel following the lives of twins conjoined at birth…and their travails and adventures and their chosen professions and how all of that came from their early life experiences and tragedy. The story is everything….and, opened my eyes too much of the history of Ethiopia at that time.
As a visiting nurse my patient, a retired internist, loaned me his book. He told me everyone in healthcare should read this and I agree. Well written, you feel emotional attached /connected to the boy growing up and becoming a physician . Hard to put it down you want to know what happens next.
Cutting for Stone is one of my favorite books that I’ve read lately. The story was captivating and the writing was phenomenal. I left feeling that I had learned more about the world and was entertained in the process.
3.5 of 5 stars to Abraham Verghese’s novel, Cutting for Stone, which was a book club selection about 7 years ago. At first, I wasn’t sure I’d like the book, as I expected it to be quite sad. And back then, I wasn’t interested in reading sad or emotional books; however, this one was quite good and I waffled between a 3 and a 4. I settled on a 3 only because I felt it was a little too formal / stiff for the type of book it felt like it should have been — still above average to me, as far as books go.
The basics: Twin brothers born in Ethiopia, Africa. The mother dies during childbirth and the father will need to raise them, but fate intervenes and they are separated. The book chronicles the separate life of the two boys and the connections between them. It’s about the differences between America and Africa, love and fear, focus and desire. There are many surprises in the book, all leading you to root for certain things to happen in each of the relationships throughout the story.
I had never heard of the author before, and this is the only read I’ve tackled by him, so far. But he’s got several other books and short stories. For me, it was a little too focused on the medical side of their personalities / careers / activities. Not in a bad way, just enough that it didn’t burst at its seams as a superstar book. I also felt like it was a little light in the action at some points, but it certainly makes up for it in some major ways in the last third.
If you are interested in other cultures, different ways of doing things and what happens to twins when they aren’t always near one another… it’s a great read. I’d suggest reading a lot of reviews to decide if it’s for you… as it’s different than most books of its genres or sub-genre.
One of the best books I’ve ever read.