So beautifully written. Every page. Every paragraph. There are so many times when you say to yourself, "how could they or how selfish" and then later in the book you think, "how remarkable." A wonderful book, well written, that you will not want to put down. Highly recommend. ( )

A multigenerational epic - so many characters, events, and intertwined plot all centering around a young girl who leaves home at the age of 12 to be married to a widower with a young son, not much younger than her. A kind man, he waits to be a husband and they later have one daughter, Baby Mol, who is handicapped (probably Downs). The man is much afraid of water and avoids it always even taking a bath by pouring water over himself. The young boy drowns in a small bit of water.

Meanwhile a young man of dubious background leaves medical college in Edinburgh and heads to India to get experience in a medical facility run by the British. His boss is an incompetent but arrogant physician. Digby gains experience and eventually falls in love with a married British woman. Due to a tragic fire which kills her and leaves his hands wounded, his career as a surgeon seems finished.

Philipose, the son born to the Indian couple, is also afraid of water and as he marries, his son is accidentally drown. There is a lot of medical reasoning that is unveiled regarding balance and water. The story spans basically from 1900 to 1970 which is the lifespan of Big Ammachi, the young girl who left her home.

Loved the writing, the believable plot, the interesting and real-life characters. Great historical fiction. ( )

September 12
It’s certainly a bit of commitment to take on a book that’s 775 pages but it is at the same time rewarding when the commitment is worth it. Verghese’s first novel that I read was Cutting for Stone, and it immediately became one of my most recommended novels , so I was anxious to undertake this three generational epic of southern India, and not only for the intricacy of plot satisfaction, but also for the amount of historical knowledge that I gained from reading. It also amazes me that this man, who is approximately my age, is a world renowned doctor of medicine, a Stanford, professor, and oh by the way, has written four New York Times best sellers.
The main character is a 12 year old girl who is about to be married to a 40 year old widower, a situation that usually stems from poverty and results in a lifetime of hardship. Not here. Mariamma is respected by her new groom and she quickly becomes more of a caretaker for his first child. As time goes on they have two of their own and we will read about the three generations that follow. The title is about a seemingly cursed family history with water and part of the mystery of that curse is a mainstay of the plot. Suffice it to say there are many memorable characters and plot lines as we see the history of India from 1900 through to 1977. There is a thread about a Scottish surgeon named Digby who falls in love with another man's wife, a Norwegian doctor who dedicates his life to founding a leper colony, and the granddaughter of our main character who pursues medicine and the mystery of her own parents. As I said the intricacies of the storylines come together nicely and the writing provides a great sense of the region. Certainly recommended .

Lines:

A father’s worries end with a good husband.

The spice craze swept over Europe like syphilis or the plague and by the same means: sailors and ships.

But such memories are woven from gossamer threads; time eats holes in the fabric, and these she must darn with myth and fable.

the sweetness of life is sure in only two things: love and sugar. If you don’t get enough of the first, have more of the second!”

The Indian Civil Service, or ICS, is the machine by which a mere thousand British administrators control three hundred million people, a miracle of management.

“A Rolls never breaks down, my dear. Rarely, it may fail to proceed.”

Her musky attar with notes of sandalwood and lost civilizations is the opposite of a Parisian scent.

“What? . . . I’m saying, if brains were oil, that one didn’t have enough to prime the tiniest lamp.”

I come to the end of a book and I look up, just four days have passed. But in that time I’ve lived through three generations and learned more about the world and about myself than I do during a year in school.

“Success is not money! Success is you are fully loving what you are doing. That only is success!” ( )

It is an amazing book. He writes so well. My only problem was there were so many people I felt like I lost track of some of the people. Some things were a surprise but many of the twists were obvious. The other issue is how many people can die. Just too many. ( )

Updated Rating: 4.5⭐️
Audio Narration: 5⭐️

Update (May 11, 2023): I just finished the audiobook narrated by the author! You'd think that after a 700 read, I'd shy away from a 30 hour listen, but I couldn't stop thinking about this book! I had mentioned in my review of the novel that it felt like the author poured his heart and soul into the writing and I now say the same for the audio narration. The author’s calm, heartfelt narration is simply outstanding! I would definitely recommend the book, pairing the book with the audio narration or simply opting for the audiobook if you find the page count daunting!

“All families have secrets, but not all secrets are meant to deceive.”

Dr. Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water follows three generations of an Indian Malayali Christian family in Kerala spanning from 1900 to the 1970s. As the novel begins, we meet twelve-year-old Mariamma preparing for her wedding day. Her groom is a forty-year-old widower with a young son – the owner of a vast expanse of land in Parambil. Unbeknownst to her at the time of marriage (and revealed to her after a tragic loss) is the fact that her husband’s side of the family is plagued by a “condition” that has caused several family tragedies related to drowning across generations. We follow Mariamma or Big Ammachi as she is called and her family through the following decades, and how the condition impacts the lives of those whom she holds dear. Parallel to the Parambil narrative, we also follow the stories of Digby Kilgour, a Scottish doctor who joins the Indian Medical Services in British India as well as Dr. Rune Orquist, who devotes his life to the care of leprosy patients. Though the different threads of the story might seem a tad disjointed, the author weaves these threads into an expansive, breathtakingly beautiful narrative.

“What defines a family isn’t blood but the secrets they share.”

The novel deals with themes of family, tradition, legacy, grief, love and sacrifice and also explores sensitive issues such as colonialism, discrimination and addiction. I enjoyed this story – the characters, the setting, the elegant prose and descriptive detail, the history of the Parambil family, the portrayal of India and Indians under British rule and how India transitioned into an independent nation and the social and political changes that followed. Dr. Verghese draws upon the history of spice trade in India and the culture, traditions and rituals of the Malayali Christian community in India. The author also incorporates how the advancement of medical sciences has contributed to gaining insight into illnesses that were once difficult to define into the narrative. The writing is descriptive with great attention to detail. There are several characters and subplots woven into this narrative and while the volume might appear a tad intimidating, this story was not ambiguous or too complicated to follow.

There are a few minor issues that I should mention. First and foremost, this is an extremely lengthy novel (730 pages). Those who follow my reviews will know that I don’t find lengthy novels daunting and I’m more than happy to be swept away by a long, fulfilling read as I was with this book, but I feel that this story could have been shorter. Though the author brings all the threads of this story together in a satisfying ending, the multitude of themes, characters and subplots do not allow all the themes to be explored with equal depth, which is understandable. A few significant historical details from the period are mentioned but not explored beyond how they immediately impact the characters in question. There are several descriptive scenes of medical/surgical procedures in the course of this story, which might not make for interesting reading for those not interested in the same. The narrative does suffer from minor repetitiveness but not so much that would detract from the overall reading experience.

The Author has taken inspiration from his mother, who jotted down facts about her life and their family history in a forty-page manuscript in answer to her granddaughter’s questions. It is evident from Dr. Verghese's writing that he has poured his heart and soul into this novel. Evocative, insightful, heartbreaking yet hopeful, The Covenant of Water is a memorable read.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

"Ammachi, when I come to the end of a book, and I look up, just four days have passed. But in that time, I've lived through three generations and learned more about the world and about myself than I do during a year in school. Ahab, Queequeg, Ophelia, and other characters die on the page so that we might live better lives."

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