Why did I love this book?
For starters, the first page and the opening lines were so startling that it would have been impossible not to turn the page. And it begins with a focus on a pre-adolescent girl; I always think when I encounter such protagonists: these are my people.
I was such a girl myself once. I raised daughters. I write for adolescents. When I encounter such a voice, I settle in and enter that world.
And the world of this book is one that was foreign to me. I’ve never been to India, never much wondered about life there. But Verghese creates the world with such sound and color and mystery and magic that I entered it completely. Added to that is the pervasive plot element of the practice of medicine and how it affects culture and generations.
25 authors picked The Covenant of Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
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…