Cutting for Stone Trailer

A long and absorbing story, set mostly in Ethiopia in the early 1960’s. The author is an Ethiopian-born American MD. The novel is epic and multi-faceted but every facet shines. The political stuff, the medical stuff, and the stories of the Marion Stone, his twin Shiva (conjoined at birth, and separated), their birth parents, and the parents who raised them.

Because the characters are doctors in Ethiopia, then New York, there is a lot of interesting stuff about contrasting ways of practicing medicine in each country, and the different challenges to medicine each country presents. My brain loves medical stuff and there is plenty of it in this book.

I remember when Haile Selassie aka Ras Tafari was in the news, and there is a lot of interesting stuff about his imperial regime, the coup, and the loyalties and sympathies of Ethiopians, and the dangers of coming down on the losing side.

The other fascinating thing about Ethiopia is how religion is expressed. The three majors are there; Christianity, in the form of eastern orthodox, Judaism, and Islam. But all three are so cross-pollinated with African religions they barely resemble their counterparts in America. And though Rastafarianism rose in Jamaica, it of course originated in Ethiopia. That is all backdrop to the story, which sucks you right in when a Christian nun originally from India dies while unexpectedly giving birth to twins fathered by a Brit who immediately abandons them, so they are raised by Indian doctors living in Ethiopia. America is not the only melting pot in the world!

Verghese loves his characters and I do too. He loves Ethiopia and also appreciates the US, and he is so good at imparting those sentiments in this novel.