A review by passionyoungwrites
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0


This story is a story of conjoined, identical twins whose mother dies during childbirth and their presumed biological father leaves and never returns. Their mother is a nun, whose pregnancy goes unnoticed until the father, a doctor, needs her at her usual duties as his assistant. Raised by other doctors at the clinic where their parents worked and lived, this story is told solely from the POV of the eldest twin, Marion. 

⛏️

This book is full of medical terms, procedures and the everyday issues of life. Set in Africa, where neither of their parents are natives - the twins follow their fathers, and adoptive parents footsteps into studying medicine. Marion, receiving his credentials in America after having to flee and Shiva, his twin, receiving hands on training in the clinic in which the twins were born. 

This story allows is to see motherhood at an unexpected time, adoptive parenting and a hint of parental struggles, health diagnosis from the clinics staff, war, survival, and silent sibling rivalry. 

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