Cutting for Stone (2009), Abraham Verghese's third book and first novel, is the tragic and engrossing story of twin brothers born to an Indian nun and an English surgeon at an Addis Ababa mission hospital. Marion Praise Stone, the elder twin, narrates the tale in hindsight as he reflects on the contingencies of love and war that pulled his family apart and, ultimately, brought it together again.Verghese, himself an Ethiopian-born physician, is currently a professor of at Stanford University's School of Medicine. His medical knowledge informs this work but his emphases on compassion and sacrifice breathe life into his characters.
After Marion and his brother, Shiva, lose their mother in childbirth and are abandoned by their father, they are reared by their parents' colleagues, Hema and Ghosh. Their adoptive parents nurture the twins' medical aspirations but, more importantly, provide them with the moral compass to guide them through the heartbreaking trials of adulthood.
In the first half of the novel, I found myself most moved by the character of Hema, with her fierce love for her infant sons and her deep affection for the stalwart Ghosh. A tough and dedicated obstetrician, she is rendered vulnerable by her fear that she might lose the children to either illness or the return of their absent birth father. The growing tenderness of Hema and Ghosh's relationship as he becomes a pillar for both his family and the hospital was, for me, the highlight of the story. I was disappointed that, as Marion and Shiva grow older, Verghese's characterization of Hema loses much of its earlier vibrancy. The condensed time frame of the second half of the novel makes the plot seem rushed and shallow in places. Ultimately, I found the ending satisfying but a bit short of the work's emotional promise.
