South India, family secrets; elephants casually visiting for a meal; mysterious spirits dwelling underground; medicine, its romance and harsh reality; destructive passions and healing wisdom. And also adventures, dreams, a wealth of colors, sounds, light, and human stories woven into the history of India.
It begins in 1900 and ends in the late 1970s, though in reality, it doesn't end at all. The story of several generations of an Indian Christian family from Kerala, surprisingly intertwined with the story of a Scottish doctor from Glasgow, whose fate brought him to India. Yet, Abraham Verghese's novel is not just a family saga in exotic settings. It is a wise and kind narrative about how family is created not by blood ties, but by shared destiny; that there is always a choice, but not always the strength to make it; that we are all eternally connected to each other by our actions and inactions, and that no one is ever truly alone.
