The Covenant of Water: A Novel [B1476]

2023 HCDJ in nice clean condition. 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. "One of the best books I've read in my entire life. It's epic. It's transportive . . . It was unputdownable!"--Oprah Winfrey. Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South 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 long-existing 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, known as 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 human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Two Verghese books in a week - I must be nuts! I never write book reviews. Until now. My house is a wreck. Let me explain: I just read two Abraham Verghese books back to back in a week. If you know that author, you understand why I've accomplished little else. I just finished his latest, his magnum opus, The Covenant of Water. This is a book you need to read - I mean really read and pay attention. It is not an easy read: more than once I found myself wondering what the heck that has to do with where this is going. But, true to form, Verghese wraps it up neatly in the last 100 pages and in the end it is a very satisfying conclusion: one that earns it a top five on my book list for the year. His previous novel, Cutting for Stone, tops my list for the year. This one was close for that honor. And it was worth the journey."; "This is an expansive multi-generation novel of joy, pain, family secrets, and personal triumphs connecting India, Ireland, the old and the new. A truly epic work."; "This book is moving, thought provoking... it altered my world view. It's a saga of gigantic proportion. I savored every page. I cannot recommend this book enough. Read it. Absorb it. Let it consume you. Absolutely 10/10!"