The Covenant of Water is a sweeping saga about multiple generations of a family in Kerala, South India during the 1900s. When the book started with a twelve-year-old bride married to a forty-year-old man, I was preparing myself to read what was sure to be a heartbreaking tale. But I was wrong. From the start, the story was hopeful and optimistic, and it pulled me right in. I lost myself in the narrative and the stunning prose and was swept into Big Ammachi’s world.

Verghese is a master storyteller, and I underlined dozens of beautiful sentences throughout the book, hoping to learn from a master. Though I am usually squeamish about medical procedures, I was fascinated by Verghese’s detailed descriptions. There were many Malayan words in italics, which slowed down my understanding, but after a few chapters, the foreign words melted into the background. The characters were multi-layered and deeply drawn, flawed and realistic, and I fell in love with each of them. But there were way too many characters, and I had a hard time remembering each character’s arc since the book was very long. The setting was rich and vivid, and though I have never been to India, I was transported. I love epic historical fiction books, and I now have a much deeper understanding of the region, colonialism, religion, food, culture, and traditions.

This is currently my favorite book of 2023. It will be tough to top this writing.

My thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in any way.

Cutting for Stone is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was excited for this follow up from Abraham Verghese. The Covenant of Water is a multi-layered historical tale that follows three generations of a Malayali family living in Kerala India spanning from 1900 to 1977. The prose is lyrical with vivid descriptions of the period and lush setting while also incorporating extensive medical knowledge and details about medical advances. The main character of Big Ammachi is the anchor of the family and their story as it begins and then unfold through the years and generations. She is the one whose eyes you see the world through and the one who you continue thinking about after their story ends. This was a 4 star read that was lifted higher by the author’s emotional investment in his compelling narration.

This multigenerational novel follows a family for decades. A mysterious condition seems to have taken the lives of family members when they go near the water. A log is kept in the bedroom to document each death.

The story seems to go back and forth and at times, I wondered how Dr. Digby and the story of his surgical journey had anything to do with the others.
At a certain point, it all intertwines though. I found this book one that I couldn’t take in, all at once. Parts of it were very heavy as subjects include death of children and adults. There are descriptions of medical surgeries, and abandonment. Overall, I’m glad I read it as, the author took parts from his mothers own journal to write it. He is an amazing writer, which I knew from Cutting For Stone.

You can SEE the story that is being told through descriptive and beautiful narrative. It’s a long book but it sucks you in and doesn’t let go. I enjoyed this one just as much as Cutting for Stone by the same author. Beautifully written. Highly recommend!!

I was a huge fan of the author's previous book "Cutting for Stone" and eager anticipated reading this book. "The Covenant of Water" is an epic family saga that didn't grab me the way his first book did.
I really enjoyed the characters but the story sometimes dragged. Even though I loved this book less than "Cutting for Stone" it is still well worth the time invested in reading it.

I enjoyed this novel very much! Verghese is such a talented writer and I also would recommend two of his books: Cutting for Stone and The Tennis Partner. My only slight caveat with The Covenant of Water is the length. It’s a very long book and perhaps would be a bit better had some parts been edited down slightly. Overall, though, very well written and interesting.

Oh my goodness, what an incredibly beautiful book!

I admit to putting this one off for a while because of the length, but when I finally picked it up I couldn’t put it back down. Abraham Verghese has a gift. I remember being propelled through Cutting for Stone in the same way as this book. I needed to know what happened next, but I was also enjoying every page of the book.

The Covenant of Water is a masterfully crafted intergenerational story that weaves together the different threads in an extremely satisfying and unpredictable way. The characters in this book experience a lot of pain and tragedy but all of these events are handled with the utmost care.

The characters are numerous but all incredibly memorable, even those who play fairly minor roles in the overall narrative. I know I will be thinking of them for a long time after finishing this book.

Thank you so much for the ARC, I cannot wait to see what else Verghese writes!

I can not really write a review of a book I could not finish. I didn’t like all the Indian phrases, even if they were explained.. When I realized how long this novel is, I gave up trying to get through it.
I received a copy copy, opinions are strictly y own.

Spanning three generations of a family in India, Abraham Varghese brings readers a up close look at a Christian Indian family, their culture and their love for one another as they struggle to find answers to a family affliction that causes unexplained drowning.

Big Ammachi is the family matriarch. She came to be in Perambil in an arranged marriage as a young girl. Her husband was many years older, with a young son to raise. Big Ammachi soon grew close to the son and eventually grew to love his father who was a patient, kind and quiet man.

The family faces many tragedies and changes through the years. Big Ammachi struggles with having children and two of them survive, although they are many years apart and the daughter is a child with special needs. Her son Philopose was expected to be a doctor, but soon into college it is discovered he has hearing loss. He leaves college and eventually becomes a writer.

Philopose was another family member that was not so fortunate with having children, but the unexpected gift of a daughter arrives and it is this child who will fulfill the family dream of becoming a doctor.

I loved the characters, with all the complicated lives and struggles. At times the story dragged a bit, but I kept reading and by the end of the book, I was so glad I stayed the course because the final part of the story answered so many questions about the lives of the characters and the family affliction.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic, Grove Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review and recommend this to readers who love epic stories.

Very interesting bookout. It was from being rural area and however they was tied together and so many different factionations of this book. You start out with a m n a c I t Who is Married to a man who lost his first wife and needed help with jojo. He was very kind and understanding because she was only 12 years old when she was sent there and as the book progresses you can see how she matures along. With the changes in india. There's a lot of tragic beans in this book reviving water and you can see how important this place apart. She also experienced ghost around because of the first wife and tragedies will come our way soon enough. I like it how it was interesting. How a doctor from Scotland who was raised in a very poor area of Glasgow came to India to work in the hospital and this was like another story in the book.. This will play a very important part in the book as well and it's like a tragedy in itself as well. He comes involved with a woman who is the chief surgeon there and tragedy and folds from there. He's severely burned in a fire and also killed his mistress. He ends up in the mountains and then who's bought to a lumpert colony and many interesting. Things happened there as well. The ending is really interesting as well you'll find out how this all ties together. And how India went from a very rural area to a very modern area and an independence as well from Britain..

It's hard to add very much to all that has been said about this book. The Covenant of Water is a huge sprawling book with sensuous descriptions of the Malabar Coast in the Indian state of Kerala. Most of the characters are members of the community, originally founded by St Thomas' converts to Christianity. The Covenant of Water follows one of those remote settlements as it evolves into the 21st century. Many bad things happen to the characters and their families. But those events feel integral to the lives they are living, and ultimately they only serve to make the characters stronger, and paradoxically more hopeful.

At one point, we learn that Phillipos wasn't destined for medicine, but for a life of words. Fortunately for us, Verghese has managed to combine them both..

The book is long, especially as an audiobook (read by the author), but I never once did I not want to immediately return to its world.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

𝗖𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 has been a favorite book of mine for years. Fourteen years later, Abraham Verghese has done it again! I was eagerly awaiting the release of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 long before @oprahsbookclub picked it.
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On Monday my local indie hosted an evening conversation with @abraham.verghese.official . It was everything I hoped it would be. Dr. Verghese is obviously so smart but he was incredibly humble and charming. He read a few passages from Covenant and shared a bit about his writing process and inspiration for this book. He said so many profound things but two that stood out me were: “Geography is destiny” and “Character is defined by reactions taken under pressure.”
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The Covenant of Water is a big book (736) but there is beauty on every page. Generational trauma, advancements in medicine, love, grief, and so much more are expertly handled in beautiful passages throughout the book.
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All the stars for this one

This is a beautiful, epic novel that takes place between 1900 and 1977 and deftly intertwines the stories of several different characters. I loved these characters and loved how the author brought it all together in the end, but I do believe it was longer than it needed to be and that it dragged along in a couple of places. Regardless, I gladly give it 4 ⭐️.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

Heartbreaking, beautiful, tragic, often uncomfortable and totally consuming – Abraham Verghese’s new novel is a treasure to be savoured. The rich language conjures up such a strong, evocative sense of place that I could positively hear, smell and feel as the various lives played out, mostly in India. The characters are rich and colourful. The author’s words drew me in with their beauty and grace, and I enjoyed his gentle humour and chapter titles (e.g. Still Life with Mangoes).
A twelve year old girl is brought to marry an older man she doesn’t know, far away from her beloved mother. The glorious cast of special characters that people her new world are all captivating, but her husband’s family are struck with ‘the condition’, an inherited familial disorder. Then there’s Glaswegian doctor, Digby, who joins the Indian Medical Service in Madras where his superior is a doctor from hell, wreaking havoc with people’s lives. The two families live in parallel until their lives join up in heartbreaking but beautiful synchronicity.
This is a story about family and mothers. About love and medicine. About imperialism, subjugation and class. While the politics of the time and history of India don’t overwhelm the story, they are very much the backdrop against which this epic story plays out, and I found them fascinating. The story is also peppered with gems, such as: “Literacy alters patterns of life that have gone undisturbed for generations.” We get so much insight into how the English lived in India, Anglo-Indian relations and the system. And then there is the spirituality, beliefs, magic and prophesy.
An excellent, beautiful read. But it is a long book, and I’d advise you to put it aside until you have plenty of time, so that you can spend hours at a time with it.

"Whatever is next for me, whatever the story of my life, the roots that must nourish it are here."


I rarely go for books that have many pages (many, meaning +500 pgs) because of several reasons:
1. I consider myself a slow reader and I don't like the feeling of being stuck with a chunky book for too long
2. They seem full of filler pages that don't do any justice to the actual story in the book

On the other side, The Covenant of Water was definitely my most anticipated book for this year, and I was so happy when I saw the message that I got it. Of course, I was scared to start it, I needed some time to digest that I now have my own copy on my Kindle.

However, when I finally felt brave enough to give it a try, it was love from the first chapter. A long but smooth ride along every single line, until the last page.

"What defines family isn't blood but the secrets they share. Secrets that can bind them together or bring them to their knees when revealed."


The story in The Covenant of Water follows three generations. An emotional and gripping family saga (my favorite), intertwined with history, politics, medicine, family, love, and all other pieces that make our life look like...life, with all of its good times, its bad times, and everything in between.

I really loved the writing. Maybe it would be too narrative for many readers, but I don't think that it was the case for this book. It was perfect writing for this kind of story. Each character evoked many feelings, and I can't decide which one was my favorite. They all were too important, you'll see once when you allow the book to draw you in.

The story we follow in these 700+ pages, begins in India, when a 12-year-old girl marries a 40-year-old widower. An arranged marriage that will change her life forever.

"Even if I fall, I have to try. If I let go of my dream, something in me will die."


It is a book about courage. Courage to leave and forget the life you knew, and start a new one far from the place you called home. But also courage, to win the battles that life made you go through.

And this was just the beginning of becoming "Big Ammachi", the Big Mother, the Mother of all.


I think that this review needs to end with some of my favorite quotes from The Covenant of Water:


"Forgive me," she says now. "For what?" "For everything. Sometimes we can wound each other in ways we don't intend."


"Pain has no past or future, just the now."


"We don't have children to fulfill our dreams. Children allow us to let go of the dreams we were never meant to fulfill."



Many thanks to the publisher, who provided the digital ARC via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a very difficult bookto encapsulate in a few sentences. A sprawling, multi generational family saga spanning three quarters of the 20th century. written in clear language. The characters, both the Indian and the Anglo-Indian, are well drawn, the plot lines are complex but tie together and the scenery , mostly set in Karala beautifully rendered. This is an immersive read that will keep the reader engaged and interested. Another Vergese book not to be missed.

The Covenant of Water is a sprawling multigenerational family drama set in Kerala, India, by a practising physician who wrote the outstanding Cutting for Stone (published 2009) which I adored. While this features many similar elements - complex individuals inter-relating during difficult periods of their country’s history, a lot of social commentary, unconventional family relationships, and medicine throughout, this one was much much too long and very slow paced - it has taken me five weeks to finish, which is unheard of for me, and the never-ending tragedies just became numbing, rather than moving.

It’s 1900 in Parambil, Southern India and Mariamma, only child from a rural Christian family, is only twelve when she is married off to a much older widower after the death of her father. Expected to run the household and raise her young stepson, she fears the worst, but her new husband is kind and hardworking, and as she grows into her role as Big Ammachi, she will experience joy but also heartbreak, because the family is cursed by The Condition - someone in every generation will die by drowning. Meanwhile, in far away Scotland, a young man embarks on a unique medical career.

“ We are born and baptized in this water, we grow full of pride, we sin, we are broken, we suffer, but with water we are cleansed of our transgressions, we are forgiven, and we are born again, day after day till the end of our days.”

This was beautifully written, thought-provoking, educational, and often desperately sad. As with CFS, I don’t think I would’ve appreciated it so much if I were not medical myself, although many friends have given it five stars. The relatively low rating is because I found it such heavy going - I read for entertainment not punishment. There’s so much going on that it was hard to keep track of all the minor characters, and there were long sections where important characters like Digby just disappeared. While I liked the way things were brought together at the end, I would’ve appreciated an epilogue to learn the fate of other key characters. 3.5 rounded down for the present tense, but I recommend you read other reviews, as if length, sadness (including deaths of children) and gory medical details don’t deter you, it is a great book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily.
The Covenant of Water is available now.

A beautiful, sweeping epic that lives up to all of the hype. While the length of The Covenant of Water may be intimidating, the story winds and weaves throughout numerous decades, locations, and a myriad of ties between families and communities to come to a very satisfying conclusion at the end of the book. Tragedies and new developments arise throughout the book without warning, which keeps you (as the reader) on your toes. Highly recommend!

Wow. How to encapsulate this elephantine novel, with its multiplicity of themes and characters, It’s a huge, merciful, fresh and utterly immersive beast of a book, satisfying at every level. I defy readers not to be beguiled by at least one of its foreground characters, and there are several. Yes, romance and tragedy are a little heavily underlined at times, but overall this is a triumph - large, moving, fresh and free flowing. Congratulations.

This book is LONG and has a lot of characters. I have read up to part 5 but just felt like I needed a break. I enjoyed the story so far, but there were so many side stories and characters that come and go, I am not sure who I am supposed to be following at this point. I think I will come back to it, and have heard great reviews of the audiobook, so maybe that will be a better format for me. I also think for me when I read an epic book like this I like to really connect with one character. This reminds me a book like "Pilars of the Earth" which others have raved about but I didn't love. I think it is just not a book for me, though I think other people would love it. Very poetic and well written