Two of a Kind

Abraham Verghese

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

If you heard the plot of this book, you probably wouldn’t read it. You may shy away from the descriptions of disease, medical procedures and conjoined twins. Possibly you have no interest in the small town life in Ethiopia. But then you would  miss a fascinating story about a boy who grows up near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He becomes a doctor like his father, an American surgeon who disappeared at his birth. Dad ran away because his girlfriend, who was an Indian nun, dies under his care as she gives birth to the narrator and his twin brother. Verghese writes a story that flows so smoothly that without any effort you learn about life in Ethiopia, how twins think and a medical internship in a Bronx hospital. Nothing is as you expect it to be and you won’t forget it.