Cutting for Stone

By Abraham Verghese,

Book cover of Cutting for Stone

Book description

My brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths in the thick air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. Bound by birth, we were driven apart by bitter betrayal.…

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Why read it?

11 authors picked Cutting for Stone as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book is on every "best of" list for good reason. It contains some of the most profound, descriptive, and beautiful language I've ever read. What a talent! (a talent which took Verghese ten years to put on the page...hard work trumps talent every time. Verghese has both).

How could I not love a book about an Indian surgeon who finds himself living and working in Ethiopia, especially when the book has a plot that simply refused to allow me to put the book down?

I was deeply touched by the struggles of a surgeon trying to apply his craft in circumstances that seemed nearly impossible. I was equally affected by the fulfillment he experienced by being welcomed and so deeply appreciated by a community. I was hooked when his trust and resilience were put to the ultimate test.

Over two years as a NYTimes Best Seller, this lengthy novel is a true, modern epic story.

Twin brothers Marion and Shiva Stone, born of a secret union between a south Indian nun and a brash British surgeon, are orphaned and separated at a young age. They must learn to navigate the world together as they grow up in Ethiopia on the brink of a revolution.

This global story covers Africa, India, and the United States in a family saga with chaotic history as a backdrop to a family story of finding one another. A great read!

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives. 

Mimi's book list on women exploring the world and self

What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.


By Mimi Zieman,

Why should I read it?

16 authors picked Tap Dancing on Everest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


This riveting novel by an infectious disease physician demonstrates how something as seemingly stereotypic as a medical career can be profoundly shaped by circumstance, accident, location, and political events, as well as by family and personality.

The practice of surgery—be it closing a wound or removing a lesion—can be both of those things for the emotions of the person performing it. There is an analogous message for other fields of medicine—practice and practitioner become interrelated at a deeply personal level.

From Carl's list on a life in science or medicine.

I love how this book blends historical facts with wonderful, real characters spanning decades.

It starts in 1950s Ethiopia with the birth of twin boys, orphaned at birth. As they grow and mature, there is a deep love for each other, but also betrayal and hurt that kept me turning the pages to find out what happens next.

The author is a doctor, and I love how he shared his knowledge, taking me inside a working hospital in Ethiopia and New York. I read this novel in 2010, and it was the first time I learned about the true predicament…

I loved following these characters from an improbable birth in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the world of medicine in New York and back.

I learned about a time and place that never appeared in my history texts and about how that history and landscape impacted and illuminated the main character. I was riveted through all 667 pages. 

There are so many wonderful themes in this book: colonialism, the synchronicity of twins, the ethics of medical care, and the powerful bonds of families created by blood or by choice.

Verghase weaves all of these ideas together in a marvelous tapestry set in the exotic location of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the more familiar locale of New York City. Set against the backdrop of major historical events in Ethiopia, the novel sweeps you into a world where every decision has unexpected consequences.

This sweeping historical novel took me from Addis Ababa to New York. It gave me insight to the missionary medics and the political landscape of Ethiopia.

Marion and his conjoined twin brother Shavia are the central characters in this multigenerational saga. After their mother’s death and the father’s disappearance, they were orphaned. Marion’s quest is to find the identity of his biological father, which takes us to New York, where Marion, like his father, is a renowned surgeon.

The reason the novel remains one of my favorites is that there are many levels to the story, historical and philosophical; it's…

Marion and his twin brother Shiva, adopted sons of Indian doctors, come of age in a missionary hospital in Addis Ababa in the 1960s and 70s. Verghese shows his knowledge of this setting in detailed descriptions of life in the hospital and its environs. These evoked vivid memories for me of the time I spent working in similar Ethiopian hospitals. All you could do, often, wasn’t enough. I could see, hear, and smell the rich detail Verghese provides. Against this background, he unrolls a family drama centered on the conflict between the twins. Marion finishes medical school in Addis amidst…

The only novel on this list, Cutting for Stone isn’t even strictly about a civil war. Most of the book takes place in hospitals, rather than on the battlefield. But I would be hard-pressed to find a book that better illustrates how the political and social forces rippling across a country can tear apart a family. I read this book while I lived in Addis Ababa, and somehow Verghese’s descriptions of life in Ethiopia felt even more alive and colorful than the world outside my window. Cutting for Stone is a deeply moving book, about the human toll of rebellion…

From Daniel's list on the human toll of civil war.

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