I loved Cutting for Stone, so naturally when I saw Verghese had a new book coming out I jumped at the chance to read an ARC. I’m sad to say tho that ‘The Covenant of Water’ did not hold up to the 5 star expectations I had of this book.

One good thing about this book was the setting. Kerala was such a lush, vivid backdrop to a somewhat tiresome story with seemingly dull characters. I always love when a book piques my interest in a new location or subject, which absolutely happened here. Kerala was named one of Earth’s 10 paradises by national geographic, so of course that helped to set the scene. I loved reading about the stunning landscapes, the wild nature of the place and the people, the beaches, backwaters and canals. It made me desperate to visit here one day!

That being said, there was not a lot more to propel me forward, the characters were one dimensional, remote. I never felt connected to all of them or like any of them really came to life within the story. The story took place over such a large span of time that it was hard to stay interested or connected to not only the characters but the story itself. I felt like things would start moving on right when I had started to get a grip on what was happening now.

And to be honest, I thought the whole thing was predictable. There were no surprises, no storylines that kept me interested because of the unknown. I could've guessed at the books progression and ultimate ending from the very beginning.

This did make me interested in the location, & I did a good amount of research on Kerala & on the government and history of it, so that was the book’s biggest upside, but as for the rest, the majority of the story and it’s characters….3 stars is being generous. It was more of a 2.5 for me. No doubt some of the disappointment is exacerbated by the fact that I had such high hopes for this. Had I gone into it without ‘Cutting for Stone’ to compare it to, I might have been more generous. As is, 3 stars was the best I could do.

Oh how I loved Abraham Verghese's sweeping new novel set in Southern India! Spanning the years 1900 - 1977, The Covenant of Water follows three generations of a family in a small Christian community in Kerala who have a peculiar affliction. The story begins in 1900 when a 12 year-old girl is married to a man many years older than her and goes to live with him and his son on the family estate. As an adult, she becomes known as Big Ammachi which simply means 'big mother' in Malayalam (the language spoken in Kerala). Big Ammachi soon learns that her husband and his extended family are plagued by a mysterious condition that causes an aversion to water which is unusual since they live amidst the rivers and backwaters of Kerala. When Big Ammachi finds an old genealogy chart she discovers that at least one person a generation has died by drowning and she is determined to unravel this mystery in order to spare her children and later her grandchildren. Her determination to find a cure for this condition is the thread that runs through her life as she experiences great joy as well as heartbreaking tragedy. There's also a parallel story that connects a couple of times and merges in the final part of the book about a Glaswegian doctor, Digby Kilgour, who comes to India to work as a surgeon.

At its heart this is a story about family, love and loss but there is so much more woven into the narrative over Big Ammachi's lifetime. Over the course of nearly 8 decades, the story encompasses the history of South India and the formation of the state of Kerala including politics and the rise of Communism in Kerala post-independence as well as the Naxalite movement, and touches on issues relating to poverty, the caste system, religion, and women's rights. There are also a number of interesting medical issues that are germane to the plot relating to the understanding of the Condition at the core of the novel as well as leprosy, childbirth, and neurosurgery. The lyrical prose is beautiful throughout but I especially enjoyed the evocative descriptions of the landscape of Kerala which brought the setting of the story to life for me.

I was completely absorbed in this fascinating epic which is equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. At 700+ pages, reading it is a commitment but I didnt want it to end and I relished every last page!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I really loved "cutting for stone" and was looking forward to this new one which has been a long time coming!
It didn't disappoint with its epic saga of life and love in India from 1900 to 1960's. The author was able to make the reader care about the minutiae of family life as well as give an understanding of the broader history of the country. It was very moving and devastating at times, but love and hope almost conquered all.
My only quibble was the use of geordie and Scottish vernacular speech, it didn't add anything but was quite annoying.
Thank you to netgalley and Grove books for an advance copy of this book.

This is a story of family, a family seemingly cursed over generations, cursed by the water that surrounds them, as well as other issues that plague them.

Their story begins in 1900, in Travancore, South India with a girl who will be married the next morning. Her mother lies beside her on this night, the last night she will spend in the only home she has ever known. She wakes early the next morning, and while her mother still sleeps, she sits to write her thoughts, ’her father’s ghostly impression preserved in the cane weave’, and stares at the view outside the window, saying her goodbyes to the lagoon, the coconut trees, and the creek. Her husband-to-be is a man she has not yet met, she only knows that he values her as the daughter of a priest, although ’Her father’s breath was now just air.’ Her husband-to-be is a widower with a young son, and is older than her mother at the age of forty. She is twelve.

’Where the sea meets white beach, it thrusts fingers inland to intertwine with the rivers snaking down the green canopied slopes of the Ghats. It is a child’s fantasy world of rivulets and canals, a latticework of lakes and lagoons, a maze of backwaters and bottle-green lotus ponds; a vast circulatory system because, as her father used to say, all water is connected.’

While this covers the lives of many people, generations as well as places, the connections made, connections lost, as well as tragedies, at times it may seem as though the individual stories aren’t connected - the heart this story is about connections, and eventually the individual stories, like the waters, all flow into one.


Pub Date: 02 May 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic, Grove Press

Abraham Verghese has written an epic in this story. It's the story of a family in southern India in which in every generation a person dies by drowning. Unfortunately, the home area is one with lots of rivers and canals so there is plenty of opportunity for drowning if one cannot swim. While the Condition is the background of the story, there are many other themes covered in the over 700 pages. Leprosy also comes into the story and we learn of the living death lepers are forced into. Verghese's writing gives the feel of the land and the people who inhabit it, both those born there and those who come from afar to call it home.
The copy I read was an ebook which I find less than ideal especially for such a long book. I found myself skipping through the middle part to get to the end. Perhaps some of the description could have been edited out without damaging the plot and I would have been just as happy with the story. I will watch for Verghese's next book. I did read his Cutting for Stone with my bookclub many years ago.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book; the opinions are mine for which I was not compensated.

As much as I hate to, I give it a 3. There was too much blah blah blah and not enough OOMPH as in his other books. It should have been edited better which would have raised the rating.

This is the best book I've read for a couple of years. I was totally drawn in by the characters and the setting and was desperate to know their stories and what happened to them.
A Covenant of Water is set in India, in the south west, an area which is now Kerala. When she is 12, the girl who becomes know at Big Ammachi, is given in an arranged marriage to an older man, a man with property and land and a son. Why she wonders, would this man accept a girl without a dowry to be his wife? After she has moved and become settled at Parambil she becomes aware of an affliction that affects the family who can trace their history back seven generations. Every branch of the family has at least one, if not several, people who have died by drowning and many more of them have a strong aversion to water, not ideal in an area laced with canals and rivers and prone to flooding during the monsoons. Big Ammachi's greatest wish is that the reason for the 'condition' as it is known, is found and cured.
As the story unfolds it involves other characters, initially seemingly uninvolved with the family but Verghese beautifully ties up the endings in the final section.
Suffice to say, I was so wrapped up in each section of the story that when the view point switched to another character I was temporarily furious and wanted to return, but I was quickly swept up in the new story and the new character.
The scope of the book is huge, taking us from 1900 when India was very much under the dominance of Great Britain through to 1977 when it is an aspiring power in its own right. It touches on the caste system, the rise of Communism in Kerala, the advance of technology, as well as addiction, grief, and the bonds of family. The descriptions, the sights, sounds, tastes and smell all bring the place to life and the quirky little details like Damo the elephant who did his own thing and was only nominally controlled by his mahout are just wonderful.
Thanks so much to Netgalley, Grove Atlantic and Abraham Verghese for an arc of this book. I will be buying it as soon as it comes out.

“What is covenant of water about? Well, it has love, faith, family, and medicine in it.” (Author’s Note)

“Such memories are woven with gossamer threads,time eats holes in the fabric and these she must darn with myth and fable.”

This is the long awaited second novel by Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone, and it was worth the wait! The Covenant of Water follows the generations of one landowning family in southern coastal India through the 1900s. This family is also afflicted with a peculiar condition that complicates their relationship to water.

I loved Verghese’s richly detailed writing, whether it is about scenery or medical procedures or feelings between family. The detailed descriptions of complicated surgeries are obviously written by someone who loves his craft. I was completely engrossed.

I also got a fantastic history lesson about St Thomas Christians and about southern India before/during/after independence.

One difficulty I had with this book was that the two storylines weren’t very connected until the end. Digby’s story superficially touched the family at Parambil, but it was only in the last 100 pages or so that we understand why they were part of the same book. Without divulging any spoilers, I did NOT like the connection that came about.

That didn’t keep me from loving the book as a whole, though.

I have enjoyed all of Dr. Verghese's previously published books and a number of his articles exploring his life and training as a physician and his experiences as an immigrant to the United States. I was excited to read an advanced copy of his new novel The Covenant of Water.

This book focuses on a family in Kerala, viewing history from the perspective of these characters beginning around 1900 through the 197o's. Kerala's history is not a topic that I was familiar with and this book did such a wonderful job of taking me on a journey exploring this region of India. I also loved how the history of medicine was integrated into this story. Overall this was a wonderful, unique reading experience that I enjoyed thoroughly.

This was an epic story, crossing several generations, mostly taking place in Malabar state of India. I loved learning about the rituals and how there are positive effects for these traditions of which I would not have expected. In the beginning, a twelve year old girl is made to marry a 40 year old man. Sounds horrible but ends up being a beautiful situation that sets the foundation for this story. These characters are all so well developed they are like my friends and I hated moving onto the next scenario. Until I met the next characters. This book enabled India to come alive for me in my mind. I now have a vivid picture of this country, the beautiful and ugly aspects. I also enjoyed the switching between time settings and characters. Really challenges my mind, keeps me on my toes. It’s a long book, which I love, but might not be for everyone. The ending is so worth sticking with it though. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

We waited over a decade and finally got another Verghese. It's a family saga this time set in India. I got in with very high expectations considering the fact that his previous novel Cutting for Stone has been my all time favorite book for a long time now. This one is much longer and covers much more ground and it sure is another very good book, just not as magical as I remember Cutting for Stone being.
I would however definitely love to hype you up and recommend it to you if you like family sagas, India, medicine and surgery, well developed characters, following a character throughout his/hers (almost) whole lifetime and of course - well written prose.

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

Every page of this novel is a joy. It’s been nearly fourteen years since Abraham Verghese wrote “Cutting for Stone,” and “The Covenant of Water” is worth the wait.

When the novel opens, it’s 1900, and twelve-year-old Mariamma is being married to a 40-year-old widower. They are St.Thomas Christians, descended from converts the saint made when he crossed south India in 52 AD. She now has a toddler stepson and is wife to the owner Parambil, a farm of 500 acres on the southern tip of India. The groom’s sister, a loving force of nature, insisted on the marriage and stays with Mariamma for several months, teaching her how to cook and run the household. Eventually she will become Big Ammachi, the matriarch of a brilliant and complicated family who must manage what is known as The Condition, which means death by drowning once a generation. The Condition is rarely spoken of but inserts itself in tragic ways.

Verghese creates characters you feel for and want only the best for. He explores the joy and healing of art, surgery, and literature. There are wonderful scenes of Big Ammachi’s son reading “MobyDick” in Malayalam to his rapt family. His wife is able to reveal the souls of her subjects with just a few strokes of charcoal. Their daughter will use her passion and skill in medicine to try to discover what “The Condition” really means.

I cannot recommend “The Covenant of Water” enough. From page one you will be enveloped in its unforgettable embrace.

Maybe my expectations were very high as I've been waiting for this book. Cutting for Stone by Dr. Verghese is one of my favorite books, and that made me a fan of his lyrical writing. The covenant of water does not do the same for me. Maybe because it covers a LOT of topics. We learn a lot about Kerala, Naxalites, Leprosy, selfish and selfless love and yet the book didn't move me like it should have.

Special thanks to NetGalley for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

I love verghese and anticipate his books. He never disappoints. I also hope he will write more autobiographical books in the future

Verghese's storytelling is unaparalleled. He weaves culture, religion, medicine, and family into epic sagas that, even after five hundred pages, I'm longing for more of the story to unold. The author created a setting so real that my mind feels that it truly visited 21st-century Kerala in time and space. Character development was phenomenal. The characters, even the somewhat peripheral characters, all had depth, with flaws and sympathetic stories that combined to make them truly human; I find myself missing them now that I've finished the book.
I'm a big advocate for reading stories that allow the reader to travel in space and time and thus learn more about the world and themselves. Sometimes authors write places well, but miss on culture, or insert too many anachronisms, but Verghese hits the mark perfectly. I'm excited to recommend this to family, friends, strangers...

*Big thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of the book!

Cutting For Stone was a game changer for me, a miracle of a book that grabbed from the very first page and held throughout its entire length. After a wait of over ten years, I was thrilled to be trusted with an early copy of Dr. Verghese's next book, which he describes himself as a family saga close to his own family. Unfortunately, it never held the power of the earlier book and seemed more of a treatise of the Southern tip of India region, its history and culture, and not fleshed out with a compelling story. As I've said before, it breaks my heart to give a negative review to a favorite author

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I absolutely loved 'Cutting for Stone', but couldn't warm to this one at all. I started it, put it down, and had no urge to go back to it. Today I have finished Part 1 and got a little way into Part 2 and am going to have to quit. The writing is great, and very descriptive, but it's fairly dull and very depressing. I don't need everything I read to be hilarious, but there is no humour at all here. Maybe I'll give it another go at some point...

I found this novel, written by an Indian medical doctor, to be a beautifully written love story about the human body and the science and art of medicine... as told via the lives of several very multi-faceted characters at the time India was seeking independence from the Brits. His descriptions bring the scenes to life and his insertion of technical descriptions of illness and the human form was fascinating and made his version of the tale uniquely his. I could easily see this book turned into a streaming series.

Incredible story of life and the journey of love and lost. Abraham Verghese tells another enchanting tale set in India.

On the upside…
…..the educational opportunities to learn, explore and examine Kerala, a state on India’s tropical Malabar Coast - known for its palm-lined beaches and backwaters, a network of canals, with mountain slopes that support tea, coffee, coconut trees, lush hills, green landscapes, spice plantations as well as wildlife and national parks….home to elephants, langur monkeys and tigers ….and was named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic ….. were informative, and culturally enriching.
But….
the negatives of this novel outweigh the positives for me.
I felt no lightness or joy reading this story — none!!
Yet…
I worked my ass off studying Kerala history:
…..the drownings, culture - religious influences, political, social, philosophical and spiritual aspects,
Christianity influence,
moral defines,
rituals,
Medicine treatments and medical melodrama,
understanding of the community, the heritage, and traditions,
the lagoons and wetlands, Kerala food stables and cuisine: (bananas, beef, coconut, fish),
Traditional Kerala clothing,
Authoritative government,
Art pride: dance, literature, martial arts, performance art festivals, music, mythological accounts, language, architecture, customs, religions, region,
Elephants,
Boats, and boatmen
The British colonialism influence (British supremacy),
violence and crimes,
The value of education;
the geography along the Malabar coast,
etc….
while trying to stay interested in the story itself …. a span of seventy-seven years. (with poorly-developed main characters in my opinion)…..and a somewhat predictable epic family story. (it’s obvious that the young adolescent bride will grow to become the matriarch of the family as the years go by).
But…
on the upside again…we ‘do’ begin to get a deeper understanding of why Kerala is considered “God’s County”.

Big Ammachi married (an arranged marriage), as an adolescent to an older widower — and as we follow her into old age — we learn more about the influence of Hinduism (the most widely professed faith in Kerala), the Muslims, and Christians.
We learn about the high volume of drowning cases in Kerala, (a small child, JoJo dies early- near the start of this novel - in a shallow river — which sets a revealing stage that the drownings, called ‘The Condition’ for storytelling purposes, are generational fears/the curse…..
…..as drownings continued to happen throughout seventy-something years. (and are still happening today)

FACT:
“Drowning cases rise alarmingly in Kerala in 2022.
The people who fall into the water and don’t know how to swim will drown if they’re not recused in four minutes.
More than 1,000 people drown in Kerala each year….,
Drowning claims over 6,700 lives in five years. (2022)”

We learn about the caste system:
…..Collision of castes — debates around the socio-political-and cultural renaissance of the past two centuries in Kerala crop up often — the history of the Indian caste system in ‘Kerala’ is different from the rest of India. It didn’t practice the four ladders of caste hierarchy: the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudras, that was practiced in the rest of India.
There were rules for the lower caste system. For example they were not allowed to build their houses near a temple, or near any houses of the Nairs, Namboodiris and Ambalavasis.
The entire Malabar region had strict pollution rules that were considered by the observers to be the most extreme in all of India.
Nairs could kill a lower caste Pulayar on site if they met one of them on a highway.
Nambudhri Brahmins were top of the caste hierarchy and the Pulayar were the lowest.

We get an expanded medical education….(bloody graphics of surgical procedures)….
Lots of history—and culture — a wealth of information (many Indian words).
I looked up each word I didn’t know — but it would have been useful to have had a glossary that included a list of unfamiliar words (names of a meal, or type of clothing, or plant ,etc) > since sooo many unfamiliar foreign words ‘were’ included in the storytelling.

At the heart of this story …..(competes with the descriptive informative details)….is a story about love, loss, family, marriage, children, parenting, aging, living, illness, dignity, war, generational secrets and fears, the value of home, academic dreams, death, complex relationships, struggles with the demands of loyalty >>> “The Covenant of Water” is a combination of the fierce and tender, taking the reader on long-winded daunting journey….sometimes heartbreaking and pure brutality….
occasional humor, (but for me lacking in emotional generosity)….
because much too often it was simply too exhausting to plow through Verghese’s scholarly prose.

For me…
….it seemed like two things were happening simultaneously:
…..the forward action about the characters….
….and
….specific details to ‘learn’ about the added descriptions to the plot/plots itself.

Although there ‘were’ beautiful descriptions along with ‘back-story-tidbits’ to keep track of….
I either started to lose track of being able to fully know what was going on-(needing to re-read pages often) —
or— pretty soon all those beautiful descriptions started to deplete my natural interest. With too much irrelevant information—essentials overwritten—and way too long and drawn out — constantly interrupted by a variety of details -
it was very challenging to experience the richness and enchanting (good effort) storytelling.
I started to feel irritated. Reading became tedious…. but I kept looking for a payoff….
but unfortunately this book put me in a crappy mood…
I learned a lot but was also painfully disappointed.

Personally, I enjoyed all three other books by Verghese:
“Cutting for Stone”, “The Tennis Partner” and
“My Own Country”, more then I did this book.
I tried of sentences that each felt like a major production
The plot (no where near as gut-interesting as “Cutting For Stone”,)
kept being thwarted
with tangents that were largely irrelevant.

But …a few excerpts…

“The night is still. At first, she hears only the hum of the stars. Then a pigeon coos on the roof. She hears the three-note call of the bulbul. A faint scuffle in the muttam and the soft padding sounds must be Caesar chasing his tail. Also a repetitive drumming that she cannot place. Then it comes to her: loud, and almost synchronous with hers. That low-pitched, muffled thud reassures her, remind her that she’s in the arms of the man she married almost five years ago. She thinks of the quiet ways he’s attended to her needs, from arranging for the newspaper to escorting her to church for the first time, and now walking her to the boat jetty every Sunday. He expresses his affection indirectly in those acts of caring, in the way he looks at her with pride as she talks to JoJo, or as she reads the paper to him”.

“One of the legends about Mar Gregarious is that he had wanted to cross the river flowing past this very church to visit a parishioner on the other bank. But neither the jetty, three high-spirited women were bathing in the shallows, their wet clothes clinging to them, their shrieks and laughter floating in the air like festive ribbons. Out of modesty he retreated to the church. Half an hour later, they were still there. He gave up, muttering to himself, ‘Stay in the water then. I’ll go tomorrow’. That night his deacon reported that three women seemed unable to get out of the river Mae Gregarious felt remorse for his casual words. He fell to his knees and prayed, then said to the deacon, ‘Tell them they can come out now. And they did. Big Ammachi is there to shamelessly ask for the inverse: that Mar Gregarious prevent her only son from stepping into the river. I’m a widow with two young ones to raise. On top of that I must worry about this boy, who, just like his father, is in danger around water. It’s a Condition they were born with. I already lost one sent to water. But this one is determined to swim. Please, I beg you. What if four words from you, ‘Stay out of the water’, means he’ll live long and glorify God?”

“The British ward is empty, but for the bird like figure of Lena Mylin, lying there still in bed, her breathing rapid. Strands of dark curly hair are glued to her for head. She watches Digby’s approach with apprehension. Franz says, ‘Please don’t jar her bed. The slightest movement makes the pain worse”.
“That statement alone speaks of peritonitis from abdominal catastrophe, which Digby’s exam confirms:
the right side of her belly is rigid. He registers her dry tongue and parched lips, and the tint of jaundice in her eyes, and her clammy skin.
When he asks her to take a deep breath, while he gently probes below her ribs on her right side, she winces an arrest her inhalation. Her inflamed gallbladder has met Digby’s fingers. He doesn’t mince words,’I’m pretty sure a stone is obstructing your gallbladder and now it’s distended with pus. He avoids the word “gangrenous”, so as not to alarm them further. It’s urgent we operate”.

Big Ammachi introduces Philipose, saying that her dream is that he will study medicine in Madras”
“Something about the boy’s forced smile tells him that Philipose has no desire to study medicine but is too polite to contradict mother”.

“Big Ammachi’s fervent wish had been that her son would study medicine; his saving the life of the boatman’s baby was God showing him his calling. But Philipose felt God was showing him quite the opposite: that he had no stomach for sickness or disease”.

I got tired of meditating on flavors of pepper, ginger, garlic and red chili—and ongoing ‘familiar/repetitive’ type sentences like this one:
“His tongue probes for the karimeen’s fine bones that are nature’s way of saying. Slow down and savor”….
BECAUSE…
I felt ‘forced’ to slow down my reading of this novel - in ‘order’ to attempt to ‘savor’ the flavors of this novel —
In the end …. I didn’t ‘savor’ this book (I worked it - studied it - but didn’t savor it)
Then….
I notice I’d read sentences like this next one three times ( pondering why):
“A terrifying but human sound assaults his ears. The morsel on his tongue turns to clay. His hairs stand on end. It’s a man’s voice, a keening”.

Soooo…..
…..in the big picture, I struggled. ( blood, sweat, and tears)…
With a plot that was not as straightforward as “Cutting For Stone”, reading was laborious.
Ha!….
…..but it was also a (oddly challenging), a memorable experience I am happy to finally finish.

That said…
I’m a fan of Abraham Verghese (I went to see him at local book readings three different times)….
I admire ‘who’ he is ….
a medical doctor, professor of medicine, a passionate writer,
a man who values family and friendships, and a man who sincerely is a great humanitarian.

Overall 3 stars. Valuable - informative. Cared less about the story and more about the history (but I had to work to study and understand the history).