Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

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⭐ Book Review: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

👉 Grab your copy on Amazon

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⚠️ Trigger Warnings

Before you dive into this medical epic, heads up:

• Death of a mother

• Childbirth complications

• Infidelity and sexual content

• Genital mutilation

• Suicide

• War, political coups, and terrorism

• Medical trauma and surgeries

Yes, it’s a lot. And yes, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

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🩺 My Honest Take (and why I’m probably the minority)

Okay, I’ll admit it: I did not love this book. 😬 I know, I know… millions adore it. But for me, it dragged like a pair of too-tight hospital scrubs in the middle of a double shift. The beginning hooked me — twins, mysterious parentage, a dramatic birth — I was intrigued. But then the middle section plodded.

The medical writing? Excellent. Super descriptive, sometimes shocking, sometimes fascinating. But by page 400 (or whatever it was), I was like, “Do we really need this many appendectomies?” 😂

At the end of the day: 1.5 out of 5 stars. I wanted excitement, I got… a slow surgical march.

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📖 Plot Summary (Full Spoilers Ahead!)

The Beginning: A Dramatic Birth

The story opens with the parents’ meeting: Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a Carmelite nun, and Thomas Stone, a surgeon, meet on a ship from India to Yemen. Thomas asks Sister to come to Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he works. Initially she declines, but tragedy strikes in Sister Mary's destination Aden, and she eventually travels to Missing.

For seven years, Thomas operates and Sister assists. Then Sister mysteriously becomes pregnant. A dramatic and terrifying birth ensues: Thomas assumes the twins are dead and begins an emergency procedure. Hema, the obstetrician, saves the twins via C-section but Sister dies. Marion and Shiva, the twins, are successfully separated at birth. Thomas disappears. Hema and Dr. Ghosh adopt the twins.

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Childhood & Growing Up

The twins are inseparable as kids. Marion shadows Ghosh, learning medicine; Shiva shadows Hema, learning dance. They grow in tandem until adolescence, when differences emerge. Marion falls for Genet, but heartbreak ensues: Genet sleeps with Shiva, breaking Marion’s heart. 😭

Tragedy compounds: Rosina (Genet’s mother) performs genital mutilation on Genet, almost killing her, and then dies by suicide. Genet moves in with Hema, Ghosh, and the twins.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia is politically unstable. Ghosh’s friend General Mebratu stages a coup to depose Emperor Haile Selassie. It fails, but Ghosh is imprisoned temporarily. Later, Genet joins an Eritrean Airlines hijacking, and Marion is mistakenly identified as an accomplice. He’s smuggled to Kenya, then America, to start medical training.

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Life in America

Marion works as a trauma surgeon in a Bronx hospital, staffed by immigrant doctors. One fateful day, Thomas Stone (his father) appears in the OR, oblivious to Marion’s identity. After a tense confrontation, Marion visits Thomas’s apartment, leaving a message from Sister.

Eventually, father and son reconnect, Marion hears Thomas’s side, and forgiveness slowly grows. Marion also discovers that Genet is in America, and she later comes to his home, ill. They reconnect intimately, but she disappears again — leaving Marion with hepatitis, leading to liver failure.

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The Climactic Surgery

Enter Shiva, Marion’s twin. Shiva donates part of his liver in a critical operation. The transplant succeeds, but Shiva dies. Marion grieves, but reconciles his identity — he is now both Marion and Shiva, or ShivaMarion.

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The Ending: Full Circle

Marion returns to Ethiopia with Hema and becomes a surgeon at Missing Hospital, taking up the mantle of care and continuing the legacy his parents began. 🏥🌿

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⚡ Why This Book Didn’t Work for Me

• Lengthy and slow pacing — 600+ pages that sometimes feel like 1,200.

• Middle drag — medical minutiae and political context bogged me down.

• Emotional weight — trauma overload without enough payoff for me personally.

Things I did enjoy:

• Detailed medical descriptions

• Some shocking twists (Genet’s mutilation, Hema saving the twins, Shiva’s death)

• Early backstory setup and family mysteries

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✅ Verdict

• Rating: ⭐1/2 (1.5 / 5)

• Tone: Epic, sprawling, medical + historical, but ultimately slow

• Best for: Readers who love medical detail, historical context, and slow-burning family sagas

• Not for: Those who want quick pacing or gripping drama throughout

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📚 Other Book Recommendations

If you like medical + family + historical fiction, try these instead:

• The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass – quirky, literary, emotional

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba – true story, Africa, innovation

• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett – medical research, exotic locales, mystery

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⚡ TL;DR

Cutting for Stone is a beautifully written, medically immersive saga, but it dragged for me. I appreciate Verghese’s talent and research, but personally, the story was too long and slow to hold my attention. I’m clearly in the minority, but sometimes a book is more about skill than enjoyment, and this was one of those times for me.