Off the Book Shelf: Never Judge a Book....

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

If I have ever found a book that is the perfect example of "never judge a book by it's cover"...this is that book.  It has been going around our book club for several months and I kept passing on it.  I mean, seriously, look at that cover.  It tells you nothing about the story and hence, I was not enticed to read it.  But I have to say, I am so glad that I finally gave in. 

Cutting for Stone is a spell-binding and emotional journey of twin brothers who are born in Ethiopia. Their parents are the eccentric British doctor, who abandons them at birth, and the beautiful Indian nun, who dies in childbirth.  I have to confess, it took me about 200 pages to really decide to enjoy the story, but once I was really into it, I couldn't put it down.  This is a beautiful story of love, loss and relationships. 

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. 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.

Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.