Cutting for Stone

By: Abraham Verghese

Published February 3rd 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf (first published 2009)

Category: Biography

Pages: 541 pages

ISBN: 9780375414497

Description:
A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novelÑan 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 at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their motherÕs death in childbirth and their fatherÕs 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. Yet it will be love, not politicsÑtheir passion for the same womanÑthat will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to himÑnearly destroying himÑMarion must entrust 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.

An unforgettable journey into one manÕs remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
(front flap)