My last book club selection is a doozy! We actually had to push back our monthly get together because this book is SO long (733 pages), but it’s totally worth the investment of your time. I’m talking about The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Yes, the same brilliant mind who brought us Cutting for Stone. Surprisingly, I have not read Cutting for Stone, but I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. If the style is anything like The Covenant of Water, I can see why it’s such a beloved novel.
Here’s the Amazon blurb:
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY
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, OprahDaily.com
The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
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.
Yes, this book is a major time commitment. However, the intricate story and character development is unlike anything I’ve read before. I’m very thankful I took the time to read this masterpiece. Also? The plot twist near the end is mind blowing. I’m very thankful for my book b*tches because this is likely a book I would not have read had it not been a book club selection.
My friend, Lisa, created a delicious Indian feast for us to enjoy while discussing the lovely Parambil.
A few of these lovely ladies listened to the Oprah podcast about the book and said it made them love the story and the author even more. Oh, I should mention that several of my friends completed the book by a combination of listening and reading. They said the narration was super relaxing and soothing. Given the length of the book, supplementing your reading time with listening (driving, housework, exercise, etc.) will help speed things along. You can purchase here: https://amzn.to/49S5lSn
Happy reading!
