A masterly debut novel, visceral in its power, heartbreaking in its tenderness. Transporting the reader from the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, Cutting for Stone is a thrilling epic of conjoined twins, doctors and patients, temptation and redemption, home and exile--and a riveting family story, irresistibly charged with strange happenings, humour and pathos, that grabs you from its harrowing opening and never lets go. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin sons of a secret union between an Indian nun and a British surgeon at ‘Missing’ 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 brothers 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 tears them apart and forces Marion to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as a surgical intern at an underfunded, overcrowded hospital.When the past catches up with him, Marion must trust 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. Cutting for Stone is both an unforgettable story of lives cut in half and a gripping evocation of the power, intimacy, danger and curious beauty of the ancient art of medicine.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.40
Trade in Cutting For Stone for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.40, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
`if comparisons with another writer have to be made, the writer who comes to mind is Shakespeare'
-- Sunday Telegraph
"Verghese, a doctor, has an affinity for unstinting detail and unscientific intuition...a poetic perception of the outside world." -- The New Yorker, March 2009
'This is a big book and, along with Naipaul and Waugh and Dickens, there is also a strong flavour of William Boyd.'
-- Independent, Michael Bywater Independent, Michael Bywater
'readable....compelling' -- TLS
`A sweeping saga of family life, love, betrayal and redemption. It's driven by the author's natural storytelling ability.'
-- Psychologies
`Verghese's achievement is to make the reader feel there really is something at stake - birth, love, death, war, loyalty.' -- Guardian
`Verghese's novel leads us in a tremendous, compassionate, technically exuberant sprawl through post-colonial Ethiopia via Kenya to the US.' -- Independent, Michael Bywater
`convincingly evokes a place unfamiliar to most readers... Cutting for Stone honours the extraordinary, complex work of surgeons and physicians'
-- Sunday Times
`huge, rich, ambitious tapestry of a novel that makes insomnia a pleasure ... tremendous'
-- The Times
-- Sunday Telegraph
"Verghese, a doctor, has an affinity for unstinting detail and unscientific intuition...a poetic perception of the outside world." -- The New Yorker, March 2009
'This is a big book and, along with Naipaul and Waugh and Dickens, there is also a strong flavour of William Boyd.'
-- Independent, Michael Bywater Independent, Michael Bywater
'readable....compelling' -- TLS
`A sweeping saga of family life, love, betrayal and redemption. It's driven by the author's natural storytelling ability.'
-- Psychologies
`Verghese's achievement is to make the reader feel there really is something at stake - birth, love, death, war, loyalty.' -- Guardian
`Verghese's novel leads us in a tremendous, compassionate, technically exuberant sprawl through post-colonial Ethiopia via Kenya to the US.' -- Independent, Michael Bywater
`convincingly evokes a place unfamiliar to most readers... Cutting for Stone honours the extraordinary, complex work of surgeons and physicians'
-- Sunday Times
`huge, rich, ambitious tapestry of a novel that makes insomnia a pleasure ... tremendous'
-- The Times
Review
"Verghese, a doctor, has an affinity for unstinting detail and unscientific intuition...a poetic perception of the outside world."
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At 560 pages, this isn't a quick read but you won't regret investing your time in reading this immensely rewarding story. It is a very readable novel, almost family saga-like in its style and one which I was very sorry to finish.
Not for the squeamish, some sections are a bit like a busy night at ER, although obviously in a less Westernised setting. Ethiopia is vibrantly described and you really feel immersed in its culture and history. Somehow the story of the twins and their perhaps far fetched, almost Thorn Birds like conception doesn't impinge on the intense realism of this epic story which covers 50 years and several continents. The characters are all well developed and three dimensional and although the story is never overly sentimental you may need some tissues. The author doesn't overdo the twin theme but there is something so intriguing about twins and their relationships and I'm thinking more along the lines of Kane and Abel, Romulus and Remus rather than John and Edward of X Factor fame/infamy!
An intelligent and gripping story which will remain with you long after the final page has been turned - striking in its orginality and one which I will hope capture the imagination of a lot of readers.
Not for the squeamish, some sections are a bit like a busy night at ER, although obviously in a less Westernised setting. Ethiopia is vibrantly described and you really feel immersed in its culture and history. Somehow the story of the twins and their perhaps far fetched, almost Thorn Birds like conception doesn't impinge on the intense realism of this epic story which covers 50 years and several continents. The characters are all well developed and three dimensional and although the story is never overly sentimental you may need some tissues. The author doesn't overdo the twin theme but there is something so intriguing about twins and their relationships and I'm thinking more along the lines of Kane and Abel, Romulus and Remus rather than John and Edward of X Factor fame/infamy!
An intelligent and gripping story which will remain with you long after the final page has been turned - striking in its orginality and one which I will hope capture the imagination of a lot of readers.
160 of 163 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful novel, a great political study, and a vivid medical narrative
27 July 2009
By Mr. P. Robbs
Format:Paperback
Verghese brilliantly brings to life the Addis Ababa of the 1960s,'70s and '80s,a time of horrific political convulsions that transformed the ancient hidden Christian African empire of Haile Selassie's day into a Stalinist revolutionary hell under Mengistu, and to his regime's final collapse. Yet this is just the background, to a convincing and beautiful saga of passions and of family upheavals and torments, woven well into accounts of how a group of doctors are connected by relationship, rivalry and skills into a collective of dedicated men and women fighting to save life in a poor and war-torn third world country. It held me to the last full stop. Surprisingly, the book has attracted less attention in Britain than in the US. It deserves better from UK readers.
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
By Pen pal
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I have never been to Ethiopia, but such was the writing I felt that I was there. Verghese makes the characters in his book come completely alive, and you begin to really care about them. It is the tale of twins, born in unusual circumstances, not least because their mother is a nun. Their subsequent childhood, in which they are raised within a very loving family by Hema and Ghosh, not their natural parents, sets the scene for all that is to come. Marion falls in love with a childhood friend, as good as a sister, but is ultimately betrayed by the two people he least expected. The betrayal has deep ramifications that ring out through the rest of time. This is an extremely moving novel, and I was not surprised to learn that the author is himself a surgeon, as he gives some fairly detailed accounts of various operations that take place. Needless to say, all the key characters in this book are surgeons or become surgeons. The skilled writing made me feel very involved in these medical procedures, and it was a genuinely fascinating journey into an area I have never read about in any detail. All I can say, is this book was an incredibly moving one, well-written and stays with you long after you have turned the last page.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 1,647 reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The pages flash by
This is a long novel, but it is written so well that the pages flash by. It is the story of twins who are born to an Indian nun and a British doctor in Ethiopia, and tracks a... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Blogpiper
5.0 out of 5 stars
GReat book
Excellent book
Great storyline
V V interesting as Ive been to Ethiopia so a lto of it made sense to me!
Great storyline
V V interesting as Ive been to Ethiopia so a lto of it made sense to me!
Published 22 days ago by John Canice Bowe
2.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult read
We had chosen this book for my book club's next meeting, and I found it difficult to summon the energy to finish it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by S. Campbell
2.0 out of 5 stars
too heavy!
this book came highly recommended from friends. my partner started on it and moaned about its over-flowery verbosity , tales of endless trauma and gynacological detail. Read more
Published 1 month ago by sue
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book I have read in years
I find it harder and harder to be transported and completely absorbed by a book but this did it from page one. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Anno
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story
I enjoyed this book because it was a good saga. Interesting setting and surroundings; family history and development of characters in the book but I didn't warm to any of them... Read more
Published 1 month ago by HB
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sculpturing
I knew someone, once, who said that everything you were seeking was already in the materials you were using-whether it be clay, words or stone. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Euphemia
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read!
A classy read! - well written, well researched, gripping and very moving. I couldn't put it down and found the medical background fascinating.
Published 1 month ago by Joberger
5.0 out of 5 stars
passionate story brilliantly told
Orphan twins arriving in the most unexpected of circumstances - love, pain, excitement and trauma are mixed expertly and believably against the backdrop of Ethiopia, it politics,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by judywele
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, inspirational
This is a great story, and inspirational especially for medics considering doing some work in the 3rd world. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Susan
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
