Cutting for Stone

Marion and Shiva stone are born from the unexpected union of sister Mary joseph,a gentle malayali nurse, and Thomas stone, a brilliant, intense British surgeon. A union somysterious that no one at the missing hospital in addis ababa, where the two worked in such tandem ƒ?? not even Thomas ƒ?? can quite fathom how the pure – hearted sister Mary is with child. The traumatic events that follow leave the boys orphaned; they are raised by two Indian doctors atmissing. Here, marion and shiva grow up in a world of medicine, learning the curiosities of sinewand muscle, of the astonishing workings of the human body. Outside the hospital, the politics of Ethiopia rages on: failed coups, student agitations, and ultimately the deposing of the emperor Haile selassie. And in the midst of all of this, the twins have a falling out about a beautiful youngwoman; a conflict so bitter that it leads Marion to flee his adopted country. Marion makes hisway to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded Bronxhospital. But when the past catches up with him ƒ?? nearly destroying him ƒ?? Marion must trust hislife to the two men he never thought he would see again: The brother who betrayed him and the surgeon father who abandoned him. Moving from madras to Ethiopia to America, from the 1940s to the present day, cutting for stoneis vast, dramatic and unforgettable. No contemporary novelist has written as superbly about the human body, or as movingly about the world of medicine and its connection to love and loss. It is a magnificent achievement.