Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone

"Cutting for Stone" is a lifelong love story, a tale of betrayal and redemption, human frailty and strength of spirit, exile and the long road home. At a missionary hospital in Addis Ababa, under tragic, truly Shakespearean circumstances, two boys are born: Marion and Shiva, twins conjoined at the back of the head. Born to a beautiful Indian nun, the boys are orphaned the moment they enter the world. The skill and courage of the doctors who separated them at birth would define their destinies. Marion and Shiva would both link their futures to medicine, but each would follow his own path. A remarkable, tragic, and event-filled fate awaits them. An idyllic childhood and a dramatic youth, the search for identity and roots, the quest for a father, betrayal and a burning desire for atonement, love bordering on obsession, and soul-consuming jealousy. All this unfolds under the canopy of medicine, which forms the core of each man's life. Whatever happens to the heroes of this truly grand novel, whatever torments they may endure, the focus always remains surgery—the calling for which they were brought into this world.
Abraham Verghese is an eminent doctor and a professor at Stanford University who, like his protagonists, went through all the stages of becoming a physician, sometimes in very challenging conditions. His novel "Cutting for Stone," first published a decade and a half ago, is now rightfully considered a classic. Its astonishing insight and authenticity, profound knowledge of the profession, and magnificent literary style allow Verghese's book to be called one of the most significant medical novels of the last century.

Author: Abraham Verghese

Translation: Sergey Sokolov

Pages: 608 (offset paper). Hardcover

Dimensions: 220x150x40 mm