Best-selling author and Stanford University medical school professor Abraham Verghese has a new novel - a sweeping epic following three generations of a family in South West India across the 20th Century.
The Covenant of Water will delight fans of his 2012 novel Cutting for Stone, which sold over 1 million copies and remained on the New York Times best-seller list for over two years. The story centres on a young Christian girl in Kerala, who is married to a 40 year old widower, and follows as she become matriarch of the family over decades in which India changes enormously. Abraham Verghese was born and grew up in Ethiopia - the son of expatriate Indian parents. He began medical school in Ethiopia, but his studies were interrupted by the civil war in 1974, and he continued in India before moving to the United States.
He will appear live at the Auckland Writers Festival next month.
Photo: supplied
