Cutting for Stone

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Average Rating
Publisher
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Publication Date
2009
Language
English

Description

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

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ISBN
9781415962138
9780307271341

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These coming-of-age novels follow the early careers of young Indian doctors educated in America, but are called back to their childhood homes to fulfill roles assigned to them by tradition, family, or desperate need. Both are intensely compelling, culturally rich stories. -- Jen Baker
Both Cutting for Stone and Beneath the Lion's Gaze vividly portray the demands both of family and of medical ethics in caring for patients against the strains of political upheaval, set against the background of Ethiopia and the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie. -- Krista Biggs
A magical atmosphere and exotic settings are the foundation for these family sagas set in Sicily (Edge of Night) and Ethiopia (Cutting for Stone). Large casts of charmingly idiosyncratic characters rendered in lyrical prose make them alternately intimate and epic. -- Mike Nilsson
These moving family sagas feature engaging, well-developed characters whose childhood world is shattered by personal disaster. Although they also share a coming-of-age theme, Cutting for Stone, set partly in Ethiopia, adds a political background, while In the Unlikely Event does not. -- Jen Baker
The settings of Cutting for Stone and The Kite Runner (primarily Ethiopia and Afghanistan, respectively) are equally vivid and dynamic. Both haunting novels also have elaborate plots, political upheavals, and several important characters, rather than a single main protagonist. -- Shauna Griffin
Desirable Daughters seriously examines Indian culture in India and America, emphasizing the status and roles of women; Cutting for Stone explores similar themes of women's lives in Ethiopian and Indian culture as part of a larger story about an extended family. -- Krista Biggs
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Chang and Eng - Strauss, Darin
Interested in conjoined twins? Cutting for Stone portrays the life of a pair of conjoined twins separated at birth; Eng and Chang is the fictional biography of the famous original Siamese twins, who remained joined at the sternum throughout their lives. -- Katherine Johnson
Cutting for Stone and The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears portray vividly, in elegant language, the personal experiences of those cut off in some way from their roots, emphasizing experiences of Ethiopians in their own country and in the United States. -- Krista Biggs
Though the plots are different, both of these lush, sweeping novels follow the well-developed main characters from childhood through maturation. Each offers a sensitive examination of love, loss, family, and identity. -- Halle Carlson

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