Book review: Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese

reviewed by JHB Princess

I loved this book. I have no idea how exactly to start this review except to say - I loved it! It was the kind of book which left me bookless for a good few weeks after I’d read it, in book mourning really*.

The story is set in Ethiopia around the 1950’s, at a mission hospital called Missing (actually Mission, but the name was confused by one of the locals and became Missing), and centers around Marion and Shiva Stone. The story is told by Marion, and starts before they were born, with their mother as a young woman and her voyage to Ethiopia.

Although complex and full of many different relationships, between the boys, their parents, the dead and other characters, the one underlining question remains - who is the boy’s father and how did they come to be.

Naturally there’s a little love triangle, a few moments which may leave you close to tears, a little suspense and a slight twist or two.

Abraham Verghese’s fantastic use of the English language as well as the gorgeous way he describes Ethiopia, human emotions, the complex and diverse relationships truly has one bonding with the characters and not wanting the book to end!

I highly recommend this book.

*The reluctance to start a new book, in fear it just won’t match up to the last.

Second hand books are wild books...

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack"

- Virginia Woolf

Recent book buys

Recently I bought myself these two books (I hope to read them both over the December holidays):

1. The Brave by Nicholas Evans - Nicholas Evans is definitely in my top 10 favourite authors. I have read all of his previous books and loved them. This is his latest book. I can't wait to read it. Here's a  bit about the book (from Amazon): "Alternating past and present, Evans expertly juggles his twin narratives until they come shatteringly together as father and son yield to the combined weight of the secrets they hide. Combining elements of the prep school drama, the Hollywood novel, the western, and the war story, Evans (The Horse Whisperer) skillfully mixes genres to create a real crowd-pleaser."

2. Playing with the Grown-ups by Sophie Dahl  - I actually chose this book more for it's pretty cover, than the fact that I was curious to read a book by Roald Dahl's, ex-supermodel, granddaughter. After buying it I read about the book and it sounds delightful. Heres a bit about the book (from Bloomsbury.com): "To Kitty, growing up at Hay House, surrounded by bluebell woods and doting relations, is heaven. But for her mother, the restless Marina, a silver-eyed beauty who paints and weeps with alacrity, Hay cannot provide the novelty or excitement she so craves.Swami-ji, Marina’s guru, sees her future in New York, and so the family is scooped up and relocated, leaving Kitty exiled in a colourless boarding school. Reprieve comes in the form of the guru’s summons to the ashram, but then, just as Kitty is approaching enlightenment, they are off again, leaving everything behind to come back to an England that is fast and unfamiliar. And Kitty, turning fourteen, must choose: whether to play dangerous games with the grown-ups or to finally put herself first."

What book/s have you bought recently?

The October / November book list

Here are the 4 books that made the Oct/Nov book list:

1. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

2. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

3. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

4. The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Note: to see all the past book lists click HERE

My greatest wish...

"My greatest wish - other than salvation  - was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time." - Yann Martel (from " Life of Pi")

I'm about to start reading..

"Alice Hoffman's new novel, The Story Sisters, charts the lives of three sisters–Elv, Claire, and Meg. Each has a fate she must meet alone: one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. Inhabiting their world are a charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart’s desire, and a demon who will not let go." - Amazon

Today I bought myself this novel. I am really looking forward to reading this book and since Alice Hoffman has been one of my favourite authors for over 10 years, I really don't think that I will be dissapointed by it.

What are you reading right now?

I wanted to tell...

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn’t already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

- from "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak