The Covenant of Water
Ratings26
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings26
Average rating4.4
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, and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years. Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning--and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl--and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi--will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
Reviews with the most likes.
In the first few pages a twelve-year-old girl leaves her home to marry, by arrangement, a forty-something widower. Seriously? Do I really need to keep reading this?? (I did. Grudgingly. Would you believe that, just a few pages after that, my reluctance transformed into eagerness?)
This. Was. Beautiful. Okay, a bit over the top, but goddamn what a heart Verghese has! Compassion, insight, humor; an eye for the unbearable lightnesses and despairs of life. I was reminded over and over of a soap opera. One where the characters are kind, gentle, smart, talented, noble. I've never actually watched a soap, so all I have is the cartoon cultural idea of what they're like: drama, plot twists, suffering, redemption, characters larger than life; this had them all but entirely infused with tenderness.
Plus, culturally educational. Verghese writes with (what reads like) good rhythm for local customs and language. He packs in a good amount of background, all of which I found enjoyable and fascinating.
The last hundred or so pages ramped up the drama a notch, which forces me to drop my rating from six stars to five.
i think thats about enough of that for me even excluding the weird rape analogy the last 100 pages has been a slog to get through i really really enjoyed the first three parts of this but now its just repetitive like we get it i simply cant care anymore 400 pages too long + weirdo + wasted my time + L + ratio
The Covenant of Water is a big novel, set in Kerala along India's Malabar Coast. It's the story of a family of people who suffer from a curious problem: many people in the family unexpectedly drown.
The story opens with the marriage of a twelve-year-old girl in that family, a girl who comes to be known as Big Ammachi. We learn about Big Ammachi's life and the lives of her new extended family and friends over three generations.
It's a compelling story with many wonderful happy moments and many terribly sad moments.
I knew that I wanted to read this book the moment I heard author Abraham Verghese speak about this novel at Inprint in Houston this year. And, despite my high expectations, I was quite satisfied with the story.
