Cutting for Stone

I started Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese a month ago. I read about a hundred and fifty pages, but I just didn't connect to it. After talking about it with one of the women in my book club, I decided to give it another try.

It must have been my mood or a result of a hectic October, because when I picked it back up where I had put it down, I was sucked in immediately.

Shiva and Marion are twins who were born to a nun and a surgeon in Ethiopia. Their mother dies as a result of their tragic birth and their famous surgeon father disappears. The twins are raised on the site of the Missing Hospital by Hema and Ghosh two of the other staff doctors.

The story is told from Marion's perspective as the boys grow up in the warm cocoon of Missing yet always wondering what happened to their father and feeling the absence of their biological mother.

By the end of the novel, I was wondering about Shiva and Marion whenever I had to put it down to work or sleep. A story that mixes medicine, the history of Ethiopia and a story of family, Cutting for Stone is beautifully written and heartbreaking.