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Sign up todayThe Covenant of Water
Narrator
Abraham Verghese
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Length
31 hours 16 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Seven decades (in book time!) and more than 700 pages later, I closed The Covenant of Water, the story of a family haunted by drownings. Abraham Verghese has written a spellbinding novel set in a Christian community in India. Verghese draws, as he did in the other two books, on his vast knowledge of medicine, and exhibits his ability to delve deep into character and setting. In the past six months, I have left two novels of more than 500 pages unfinished, but I read this one to the very end, moved by the quest of three generations of a family trying to save themselves from destiny and solve the mystery of their affliction. This book is a stunner, and it is sure to be high on the list when awards are given out this year. ”
— Mamie • Quail Ridge Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A sweeping, enthralling and passionate multi-generational saga that's difficult to put down (or stop listening to), this is a brilliant story of land, family and unforgettable characters in South India. ”
— Anne • Newtonville Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Abraham Verghese’s tale spans eight decades of one south Indian family’s devastating relationship with water. Suspense builds when at least one person in each generation unaccountably dies by drowning. The family and village believe they’re cursed until one member, a woman in fact, has the scientific and medical abilities to look deeper. Verghese tells the story with warmth and compassion and gives us an unforgettable cast of characters you’ll grow to care about deeply. Easily one of my favorite books of 2023, ”
— Patience • Underground Books
Bookseller recommendation
“An engrossing tale of three generations of an Indian family plagued by family drownings - this medical mystery and vivid characters propelled me through this epic tale. ”
— Mike • A Great Good Place for Books
Bookseller recommendation
“The book is beautiful, but the way Abraham Verghese narrates it, is superb. 31 hours and 16 minutes of pure bliss (and sadness and happiness and beauty). ”
— Wilma • Petronella's Bookstore
Summary
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to humanunderstanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
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