Stone, "Cutting for Stone," n/a, ch. 6, Verghese Abraham, Mar-2024, p. 608 18+

"Cutting for Stone" is a lifelong love story, a tale of betrayal and redemption, human weakness and strength of spirit, exile and a long return home. In an Addis Ababa missionary hospital, under tragic, truly Shakespearean circumstances, two boys are born, twins joined at the back of their heads, Marion and Shiva. Born to a beautiful Indian nun, the boys are orphaned barely after their birth. The art and courage of the doctors who separated them immediately after birth determined their destiny. Marion and Shiva will link their future with medicine, but each will go their own way. An amazing, tragic, and incredibly eventful fate awaits them. An absolutely happy childhood and a dramatic youth, a search for self and roots, a search for their father, betrayal and a passionate desire to atone for guilt, love resembling an obsession, and soul-consuming jealousy. And all this under the shadow of medicine, which forms the essence of each of their lives. Whatever happened to the heroes of this truly great novel, whatever torments they had to endure, surgery always remained paramount for them – the work for which they came into this world.

Abraham Verghese is a distinguished doctor, a professor at Stanford University, who, like his heroes, went through all stages of becoming a physician, sometimes in very difficult circumstances. His novel "Cutting for Stone," first published a decade and a half ago, is now rightly considered a classic. Its astonishing poignancy 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.