Cutting for Stone

Abraham Verghese is an Ethiopian-born American doctor of Indian heritage. Verghese is a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. In 2009, Abraham Verghese published the novel, Cutting for Stone. Cutting for Stone is told from the perspective of an Ethiopian-born character Marion Stone who is of British and English heritage. The title of the book comes from the phrase from a translation of the Hippocratic Oath which t...read more

Many of my public health friends loved this book. I found the issues around access to medicine very interesting, but the story itself not so much. That being said, it was worth a try.

This one has been on my list for a long time, I was a bit intimidated by the length I think. It was well worth the time. Verghese transported me to places I could never experience and consistently revealed the humanity in our actions. We saw Addis Ababa in peace and war and siege. We were invited to the side of skilled physicians working with little or no support, few fancy tools.
Verghese's tale of twin brothers lives and loves and foibles in...read more

Excellent story. Taking place in Africa about Indian doctors who help ‘orphaned’ twin brothers.

What a beautiful book! I am absolutely enamored of Abraham Varghese's writing. His characters all came to life for me in the reading of this book and their stories will live on in my mind as heroic yet human individuals who I feel honored to have met in the pages of this book.