BookBrowse Reviews Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Cutting For Stone

by Abraham Verghese

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese X
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

  • First Published:
    Feb 2009, 560 pages

    Paperback:
    Jan 2010, 560 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Book Reviewed by:
Lucia Silva
Buy This Book

About this Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


One of BookBrowse's Top 3 Favorite Books of 2009, a novel set in Ethiopia and America in the latter part of the 20th century

As a bookseller, I live for novels like Cutting for Stone - big, fat, beautiful novels as beguiling and enchanting as babies, as wise and as generous as old sages. They are the bread-and-butter novels I can't wait to sell, the books people talk about all year long, the books they buy for their sisters and fathers, the book they press into the hands of friends with insistent, almost violent exhortations. Read this. You will love it. You HAVE to read this book. I talk about these books in the plural, as if there are scores of them, but while their iconic status is great, their numbers are few. They don't come along every season, or even every year, but I wait for them, hoping every third book I read will be the one, that one single book that makes my heart leap every time I know someone else is going to get to read it, too. And so, let me be the first, but certainly not the last to tell you: Read this book. You will love it.

Abraham Verghese's gorgeous prose forms an intoxicating synergy with his sweeping, twining plot, and I was hooked from the very first page. I raced through the remaining 500, and then couldn't bear to turn the last few. The story begins like a sudden storm and channels into a swift current that's difficult to emerge from: I stayed up through the wee hours, and polished off this hefty book in just two long nights.

Cutting for Stone is about all the giant things: family, love, war, home, land, life, death, exile, brotherhood, betrayal, and faith. There are lovable mothers and fathers, telepathic twins, mysterious priests, brave nuns, despicable generals, weak giants, miracles, rock and roll, sex, food, dusty dirt roads and city streets, and countless operating rooms. Verghese's reach is vast, but the intimacy of his characters keeps the novel close, writing about the big things through tiny, intimate, emotional moments that drive to the heart of all that we find most impossible to describe.

When I originally reviewed this book last year, a few weeks before it published, I was bold enough to claim that it would go on to be named one of the best novels of 2009, not just by myself, but possibly by every book review's top-ten list, shortlisted for all of the major book awards, and decorated with Oprah's book club sticker. I may have failed at the prediction game, but I'll surely stick to the recommending game: Literally dozens of readers have returned to my bookstore (some just two days later!) to thank me for recommending Cutting for Stone, and to buy copies for their friends. And it was voted by our very own BookBrowse readers one of the top 3 books of 2009. I'll take those votes over Oprah's any day!

First Impressions
20 BookBrowse members reviewed Cutting For Stone rating it an extremely high 4.7 out of 5.0 overall - one of our highest rated of the 100+ books read to date!

Reviewed by Lucia Silva

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in February 2009, and has been updated for the February 2010 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  The Hippocratic Oath

Readalikes

Read-alikes Full readalike results are for members only

More books by Abraham Verghese

If you liked Cutting For Stone, try these:

  • The Monk of Mokha jacket

    The Monk of Mokha

    by Dave Eggers

    Published 2019

    About this book

    More by this author

    From the best-selling author of The Circle and What Is the What, a heart-pounding true story that weaves together the history of coffee, the struggles of everyday Yemenis living through civil war and the courageous journey of a young man - a Muslim and a U.S. citizen - following the most American of dreams.

  • The Names of Things jacket

    The Names of Things

    by John Colman Wood

    Published 2012

    About this book

    Set in a windswept wilderness menaced by hyenas and lions, anthropologist John Colman Wood's debut novel is an exquisite, haunting exploration of the meaning of love and the rituals of grief.

Non-members are limited to two results. Become a member
Search read-alikes again
How we choose readalikes

Become a Member

Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: A Mystery of Mysteries
    A Mystery of Mysteries
    by Mark Dawidziak
    Edgar Allan Poe biographers have an advantage over other writers because they don't have to come up ...
  • Book Jacket: Moonrise Over New Jessup
    Moonrise Over New Jessup
    by Jamila Minnicks
    Jamila Minnicks' debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup received the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially...
  • Book Jacket
    The Magician's Daughter
    by H.G. Parry
    "Magic isn't there to be hoarded like dragon's treasure. Magic is kind. It comes into ...
  • Book Jacket: The Great Displacement
    The Great Displacement
    by Jake Bittle
    On August 4, 2021, California's largest single wildfire to date torched through the small mountain ...

Book Club Discussion

Book Jacket
The Nurse's Secret
by Amanda Skenandore
A fascinating historical novel based on the little-known story of America's first nursing school.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Last Russian Doll
    by Kristen Loesch

    A haunting epic of betrayal, revenge, and redemption following three generations of Russian women.

  • Book Jacket

    Once We Were Home
    by Jennifer Rosner

    From the author of The Yellow Bird Sings, a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II.

Who Said...

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

R Peter T P P

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.