Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2020. Great storytelling! And some people love books about falling in love. Shiva Praise Stone—to seek him out, to find his reflection in the glass panel that separates the two operating theaters, and to nod my thanks because he allows me to be what I am today. The figure of St. Teresa lies limp, as if in a faint, her lips parted in ecstasy, her eyes unfocused, lids half closed. I really enjoyed this book, though there are times when it feels more like a medical text than a novel. One operates in the now. At four years of age, I didn’t need words like “transverberation” to feel reverence for that image. That jerked my chain a bit, so I did not begin reading this book in quite the right frame of mind. Yes, I have infinite faith in the craft of surgery, but no surgeon can heal the kind of wound that divides two brothers. We took our first breaths at an elevation of eight thousand feet in the thin air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. There are a number of dramatic scenes on operating tables in Cutting for Stone: the twins’ births, Thomas Stone amputating his own finger, Ghosh untwisting Colonel Mebratu’s volvulus, the liver transplant, etc. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell: A Novel, “A winner. Because the story began in his country, one also saw the incredible challenges the physicians faced daily from inadequate supplies and equipment and how inventive they were when it came to adapting to try to provide the best possible care for their patients. Cutting for Stone This edition was published in 2009 by Vintage. I'd gotten it from the library, and after @150 pages was so in love with it that when I heard he was going to be at the store, I returned the library copy (there's a huge line waiting for it), and bought a copy just to have the pleasure of his signature. Not a cry or a groan escaped from Sister Mary Joseph Praise while in the throes of her cataclysmic labor. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! The nun who has become the doctor's assistant in the operating theatre dies in childbirth; the doctor, overcome with grief, flees the country overnight. Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2016. Orphaned by their mother’s death 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. Your ‘Gloria’ lives within you. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. “An operation is his only chance,” I said. Engaging, exhilarating and also exhausting! Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2015, A book club choice which was like wading through treacle at times. Call me steady, call me plodding; say I adopt the style and technique that suits the patient and the particular situation and I’ll consider that high praise. Cutting for Stone (2009) is a novel written by Ethiopian-born Indian-American medical doctor and author Abraham Verghese. This is a huge, sweeping novel, following a family though 3 generations from 1940s India, through Ethiopia, to 1980s America. In the meadows around Missing the sedge won its battle over mud, and a brilliant carpet now swept right up to the paved threshold of the hospital, holding forth the promise of something more substantial than cricket, croquet, or shuttlecock.Missing sat on a verdant rise, the irregular cluster of whitewashed one- and two-story buildings looking as if they were pushed up from the ground in the same geologic rumble that created the Entoto Mountains. Dr Verghese didn't forget ONE CHARACTER detail from the beginning to the end, and wove the story together in such a beautiful integrate way. “No, not Bach’s ‘Gloria.’ Yours! He asked why I'd ch. I was born in Ethiopia in 1950 to missionaries with the American Mission. . But the longer it went on the more my love faded. And it can. Courage alone could not get me past that heavy door, but my sense that she was there, my obsession to know the nun who was my mother, gave me strength. Cutting for Stone (2008) - IMDb Directed by David Dawson. This book…. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. I could do without the life lessons through surgical procedure. When are you coming?I would whisper my answer: “By God!” That was all I had to go by: Dr. Ghosh’s declaration the time I’d first wandered in there and he’d come looking for me and had stared at the picture of St. Teresa over my shoulders; he lifted me in his strong arms and said in that voice of his that was every bit a match for the autoclave: “She is CUM-MING, by God!”Forty-six and four years have passed since my birth, and miraculously I have the opportunity to return to that room. I could see the sights and smell the food. What does Cutting for Stone tell us about the roles of compassion, faith, and hope in medicine? We outgrew that intimacy, but I still long for it, for the proximity of his skull. A mystery, a drama, and a thriller. An epic novel which starts out in Addis Ababa and ends in New York, Cutting for Stone is one of those books that stays with you long after you're done. I imagined I could see the cogs turning in his head; I imagined I saw the shimmer of tears in his eyes. Unable to add item to List. We’ll leave much unfinished for the next generation.Born in Africa, living in exile in America, then returning at last to Africa, I am proof that geography is destiny. 18 year old Philip Renold finds himself trapped in the endless loop of seclusion rooms, injections, pills and nightmares of … The fingertips of his left hand lift the edge of the cloth covering her bosom. “Thou shall not operate on the day of a patient’s death.”I remember his words on full-moon nights in Addis Ababa when knives are flashing and rocks and bullets are flying, and when I feel as if I am standing in an abattoir and not in Operating Theater 3, my skin flecked with the grist and blood of strangers. Filled with mystical scenes and deeply felt characters. Jackie's answer explains the pregnan, But it was only now, near the end, and far too late, that the pieces suddenly - dreadfully - clicked into place. But it can also deepen the wound.I chose the specialty of surgery because of Matron, that steady presence during my boyhood and adolescence. If you have a medical background or work in hospitals you will LOVE this book. It's scope is so ambitious and it touches on so many things that I felt some things I would have liked to have read more about were somewhat skated over, which was a little disappointing. Matron Hirst’s roses overtook the walls, the crimson blooms framing every window and reaching to the roof. Those words provide an epigraph partway through Abraham Verghese’s first novel, “Cutting for Stone,” and also explain the surname of its narrator, Marion Stone, … I'd gotten it from the library, and after @150 pages was so in love with it that when I heard he was going to be at the store, I returned the library copy (there's a huge line waiting for it), and bought a copy just to have the pleasure of his signature. In Cutting for Stone, renowned physician Abraham Verghese has given us a remarkable reading experience that explores the lives of a memorable cast of characters, many of them doctors; the insight the novel offers into the world of medicine, along with its wealth of precise detail about how doctors work, is unparalleled in American fiction. A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel - an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. 5.0 out of 5 stars 2. I was captivated throughout. After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother's womb, my brother, Shiva, and I … She understood my unformed character. I wish it were tucked away in a stack of books on my nightstand, waiting patiently for its turn to be read. Narrated by Marion the first born twin we are told of every influence on his and his brother’s existence. In his taut expression I saw complete concentration. [Insert wink that’s more than a little ironic given that I’m in the algo biz myself.] I read this book many years ago and purchased it for a gift to someone wishing to go into medicine. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2017. By the time I got to the end, I couldn't remember the significance of the letter, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2016. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. I believe she was raped in Aden, but that is not how she became pregnant as it was 7 years before she gave birth. I take heart from my fellow physicians who come to me when they themselves must suffer the knife. Some people love books. ,” I said under my breath. Ethiopian physician Abraham Verghese’s 2009 novel Cutting for Stone, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009 selection, tells the story of twin brothers Marion and Shiva Stone who are born conjoined but are separated at the time of their birth. A deeply affecting story of life and death and the wonders of medicine. A wonderful novel, inspirational, read and enjoy it!!! Like a long Tetris piece slamming down, making a whole block of mystery blink and vanish. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. . A surgeon. Almost all of the characters in Cutting for Stone are living in some sort of exile, self-imposed or forced, from their home country—Hema and Ghosh from India, Marion from Ethiopia, Thomas from India and then Ethiopia. They regret the bitterness they’ll leave in people’s hearts. When the pull quote on the cover is from USA Today, well, it's not a big selling point. Only now did he realize what suddenly seemed so obvious: everyone who had suggested this book to him – every single one – was a middle-aged woman. How easily Matron probed the gap between ambition and expediency. Posted January 14, 2015 by MPPL. Please try again. But for a four-yearold, everything is sacred and ordinary. A reporter for the Ethiopian Herald perpetuated this misspelling. Although I related and empathized with Marion and life, I could have done without the details of surgery. Don’t leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. It is the task of a lifetime. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. I read this book years ago and I still find myself recommending it at least monthly to someone. Is there a greater privilege on earth?At such moments I remember to thank my twin brother, Shiva—Dr. In the ancient Greek Hippocratic Oath (for physicians) there was a line about not cutting for stone (gall stone, kidney stone, etc) because of the danger to the patient. In the era, there was no anesthesia, etc. I couldn’t read music.“No, Marion,” she said, her gaze soft, reaching for me, her gnarled hands rough on my cheeks. Still, it’s an apt metaphor for our profession. When he came to the states to visit Jack & Jackie, he flew into the Philadelphia airport, then boarded a Train to arrive in DC with all the fanfare appropriate for royalty. “My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. More than the story being told however, the novel is an accurate portrayal of life in all it’s cruelty and wonder. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, $12.12 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to France. With a faint smile and a body more muscular than befits his youthful face, a boy angel stands over the saintly, voluptuous sister. Gradually, as I sat at my mother’s desk, a peace would come over me, a sense of communion with her. Why settle for ‘Three Blind Mice’ when you can play the ‘Gloria’?”How unfair of Matron to evoke that soaring chorale which always made me feel that I stood with every mortal creature looking up to the heavens in dumb wonder. So right off the bat I was predisposed against it. But I do see the ordinary miracles under skin and rib and muscle, visions concealed from their owner. The miracle of our birth took place in Missing Hospital’s Operating Theater 3, the very room where our mother, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, spent most of her working hours, and in which she had been most fulfilled.When our mother, a nun of the Diocesan Carmelite Order of Madras, unexpectedly went into labor that September morning, the big rain in Ethiopia had ended, its rattle on the corrugated tin roofs of Missing ceasing abruptly like a chatterbox cut off in midsentence. The reason for this is because I want to spend the rest of the time enumerating many of the good points. A very enjoyable and interesting read. “But, Matron, I can’t dream of playing Bach, the ‘Gloria’ . The debut novel by Abraham Verghese. When I got to p300 and the boys were still only 13, I did rather lose the will to live. Yet it allows me to see the cabalistic harmony of heart peeking out behind lung, of liver and spleen consulting each other under the dome of the diaphragm—these things leave me speechless. Could someone clarify this for me, please? I find I am too large for that chair now, and the cardigan sits atop my shoulders like the lace amice of a priest. Without photographs of her to go by, I couldn’t help but imagine that the woman in the picture was my mother, threatened and about to be ravished by the spear-wielding boy-angel. I pulled that Cuticura-scented garment around my shoulders. I often felt like I was reading a manual for surgery. A trailer for CUTTING FOR STONE. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Please try again. Readers will be hard-pressed to recall any other medically-themed novel that is the equal of this gem. I learned later that no one had dared remove her cardigan from where it sat draped on the chair. Recently in San Francisco I attended a reading by Abraham Verghese, who has written my favorite book of the year: CUTTING FOR STONE. “What is the hardest thing you can possibly do?” she said when I went to her for advice on the darkest day of the first half of my life. I think you are supposed to feel sorry for her, but I was too busy being ticked off at her! I grew up and I found my purpose and it was to become a physician. They know I have no use for surgical aphorisms such as “When in doubt, cut it out” or “Why wait when you can operate” other than for how reliably they reveal the shallowest intellects in our field. And it technically is. The gut that has slithered past my fingers like this in the African night would by now reach the Cape of Good Hope, and I have yet to see the serpent’s head. A story beautifully woven together beginning to end! Cutting for Stone is a novel written from the first-person perspective of Marion Stone, one of the identical twins born of a secret affair between a beautiful Indian nun and a British surgeon. (It still does.) Fixing holes is precisely what he did. My friend, the ever-popular Jason, gave it enthusiastic thumbs up, An epic saga set initially in a mission hospital in Ethiopia. [I've just started this book and there seems to be some hints that Mary Joseph Praise was raped before she arrived at Missing Hospital, or I could just be interpreting it wrong. I’d never played a string or wind instrument. So right off the bat I was predisposed against it. Cutting For Stone follows twin brothers Marion and Shiva Stone, born of a secret union between an Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Tells the story of twin brothers in Ethiopia who become orphans when their mother, an Indian nun, passes away and their father, a British surgeon, disappears. Reading Group Guide 1. “When are you coming, Mama?” I would ask, my small voice echoing off the cold tile. “Why must I do what is hardest?”“Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. … While I don’t automatically dismiss what we might imagine is the Doily and Crumpet Club’s book of the month, I do resist seeing the correlation climb too high. My dad took us down onto the tarmack at the airport to greet the Emperor when he got off the plane and into his limo! Now there's a clincher. The sight of the operating theater made me sweat. And yet Shiva remained a shadowy figure. It's a compelling premise to begin a novel with and I did love the first half of this novel. Reading it was the literary equivalent of being swept off my feet! Cutting for Stone is a requiem to the healing power of love. They are orphaned at … When I wake to the gift of yet another sunrise, my first thought is to rouse him and say, I owe you the sight of morning.What I owe Shiva most is this: to tell the story. Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2018. Twins are born to an Indian nun and a British doctor. It is one my mother, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, did not reveal and my fearless father, Thomas Stone, ran from, and which I had to piece together. (Permission granted to my friend, Candi, to say “I told you so.”), This is the one that started me. Every month our team sorts through... A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel - an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Verghese uses language so elegantly and paces his story so perfectly that I was totally transported. My fingers “run the bowel” looking for holes that a blade or bullet might have created, coil after glistening coil, twenty-three feet of it compacted into such a small space. The twin sons of nuns, Marion and Shiva, are raised in the Mission Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopa. Title: Cutting for Stone Author: Abraham Verghese Page Count: 688 pages Genre: Literary Fiction, Family Sagas Tone: Haunting, Moving, Richly Detailed Summary from publisher: Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British … At last, he shook his head, and turned away.I followed. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at … No one knew she was pregnant; no one is even sure the doctor is the father of the twins. Her one-piece desk-and-chair, rescued from a defunct mission school, and bearing the gouged frustration of many a pupil, faced the wall. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. An epic saga set initially in a mission hospital in Ethiopia. For years now this wonderful book has been sitting on my unread books shelf. Many readers will tell you that Cutting for Stone is the epic story of two conjoined twins fathered by a brilliant British Surgeon and an Indian Nun. I rimmed the dried-out inkpot with my nail, tracing a path her fingers had taken. And so Missing it was. That's the professional promise that doctors make ("first do no harm") when they first become legit doctors, and one of its vows goes a little like this: Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese Hardcover, 560 pages Knopf List price: $26.95. We actually had a little chat after the reading, while he happened by on his way to his car. Abraham Verghese has said that his ambition in writing Cutting for Stone was to “tell a great story, an... 2. So fertile was that loamy soil that Matron—Missing Hospital’s wise and sensible leader—cautioned us against stepping into it barefoot lest we sprout new toes.Five trails flanked by shoulder-high bushes ran away from the main hospital buildings like spokes of a wheel, leading to five thatched-roof bungalows that were all but hidden by copse, by hedgerows, by wild eucalyptus and pine. Oh, and Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A". Young girls are forced into FGC; unskilled practitioners are known to use stones or rusty instruments, giving rise to fistulas and barrenness, besides emotional and psychological stress. We actually had a little chat after the reading, while he happened by on his way to his car. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. . Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Oh, this book! Shiva didn’t speak in metaphors. Elements of my childhood woven into this wonderful story, Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2016. It is hard to beleive this is a work of fiction so compelling is the bond between two brothers and the extended family that colours their lives. "Cutting for Stone is a tremendous accomplishment. One of the best books I’ve ever read. For me, the book works on many levels; intellectually, philosophically, historically, medically and a rattlingly good story line. Back in the old days of Just Books, I probably would not have let a customer out of the store without the book in hand. It is a saga of twin brothers, orphaned by their mother's death at their births and forsaken by their father. He asked why I'd chosen his book in the first place, and I didn't have the answer, which occurred to me (like esprit d'escalier) until after he'd left: it's not the initial choosing of a book, but the journey the author takes you on that is important. The first I ever heard of this was when Amazon sent me one of those “since you liked x, we recommend y” mails. . Not where you are from, but where you are wanted”, PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award Nominee (2010), Exclusive Books Boeke Prize Nominee (2011), Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Fiction (2010), Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Fiction (2010), Wellcome Book Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2009), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2009), See all 24 questions about Cutting for Stone…, 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime: Readers' Picks, Petra-X has no life so is reading a book a day, (PBT Skies) Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 4 stars, (FLY the SKIES) Cutting For Stone / Abraham Verghese - 5***** and a ❤, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - 4 stars, Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese - 4 stars. My second time hearing of it was when a nice older lady at a charity book sale was telling me how much she enjoyed it. SO at times I really got discouraged/distracted by the medical episodes - BUT I stuck with it, and have to say it was a brilliantly written story. I loved the book, but if I had been reading a physical copy, there are several times I would have flung the book across the room. “Marion, remember the Eleventh Commandment,” he said. Much of this story took place in Addis Ababa. In Greenwich, it was a gushing "Thanks Warren for putting this book in my hands.". “See for yourself, madam. by Alfred A. Knopf. It was a sublime reading experience, the best novel I have read in several years. Beautifully written, engrossing novel plants you deeply in the passion of practicing medicine, winds you intimately into the cloth of Ethiopia. In the ensuing vacuum of silence, I hear the high-pitched humming of the stars and I feel exultant, thankful for my insignificant place in the galaxy. Stone,” I said, using his title though I longed to cry out, Father! Please try again. But just beyond the swinging door in the room adjoining Operating Theater 3, the oversize autoclave (donated by the Lutheran church in Zurich) bellowed and wept for my mother while its scalding steam sterilized the surgical instruments and towels that would be used on her. “God will judge us, Mr. Harris, by--by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings. The book includes both a deep description of medical procedures and an exploration of the human side of medical practices. I am not from or in that world. Please try your request again later. They realize that no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.” (Cutting for Stone, pg 434), Recently in San Francisco I attended a reading by Abraham Verghese, who has written my favorite book of the year: CUTTING FOR STONE. . It was also a very male centred reading of life with a frustrating lack of focus on developing some potentially interesting female characters. Surgery was the most difficult thing I could imagine.And so I became a surgeon.Thirty years later, I am not known for speed, or daring, or technical genius. that I wore out the box in which they came! There was just so much unnecessary detail, particularly about medical matters and minor characters' lives. The title, Cutting for Stone, refers to a line in the Hippocratic Oath, and to the last name of the three main characters, all of them surgeons. Paperback $102.27 $ 102. Cutting for Stone has been such a book for me. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We’d love your help. Verghese is something of a magician as a novelist.”. He spoke to me gently, as if to a junior colleague rather than his son. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. It is as if roll call is over and it is time now in the darkness to find your mate and retreat. A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel–an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. To begin at the beginning . As Abraham Verghese quotes it, the line from the Oath reads "I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest. Ghosh has always been in love with Hema but she has always made fun of his fe. Ghosh has always been in love with Hema but she has always made fun of his feelings. Edition Description. Some books have a hypnotic effect and they leave you in a state of haziness when you finish them. Twins joined at the head and separated at birth-Borne to a mother who died giving birth to them and a father who fled. I squirmed. Troughlike flower beds, fed by the runoff from the roof gutters, surrounded the squat buildings like a moat. Believe me, there are a, This had the potential to be amazing, a sweeping epic history of Ethiopia ala, I hope it’s not too self-indulgent to start with a personal history here. You live it forward, but understand it backward. Rambles across diverse topics without doing any much justice, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 15, 2020, Loved the idea but this book tries to do too many things and none of them that well!