Dubie's Book List: "Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese

I am currently reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. The book looks a set of Anglo-Indian twins who grow up in Ethiopia. The book is gorgeously written and I am loving it. I do feel that the Ethiopian characters and landscape could be a fleshed out a lot more to create a more multi-dimensional narrative. While the Western and Indian characters are well-developed, the Ethiopian often feel paper-thin, with the exception of one who captures the romantic attention of the protagonist.

Still the writing is incredibly lush. The characters are so easy to fall in love with and they stay with you, like old friends. There are so many fantastic moments. This quote in particular has been lingering on my mind and will be for some time to come:

“The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.”
― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone


What are you reading at the moment?