The Covenant Of Water by Abraham Verghese

 

This novel follows one Indian family in the province of Kerala for over seven decades.  It begins when a twelve year old girl is married to a forty year old landowner.  She doesn't know how to be a wife but slowly learns and although she starts out fearing her husband she learns to love him over the years.  They have three children, JoJo, who is the husband's child from his first wife, Baby Mol and Philipose.  Over the years, the young girl becomes the family matriarch known as Big Ammachi.

There is also an alternate storyline following an English doctor named Digby who is a surgeon but who ends up spending his life working in a leprosy sanitarium.  The two stories end up coming together at the end of the novel.

Along the way, the reader will learn about many things; the caste system of India, the scourge of leprosy, medical practice in the 1900's in India, Indian culture and art.  The family hides a secret; that the men especially have what they call The Condition.  That condition is an inordinate fear of water in a watery environment and many with the condition end up drowning.  As the book progresses we learn that this is a medical condition and the grandchild of Big Ammachi becomes a surgeon and dedicates her life to studying the condition.

Abraham Verghese is a medical doctor and some readers have thought there was too much medical detail in this novel.  Overall, it was released to great anticipation and was an Oprah's Book Club pick.  I enjoyed the novel but thought it ended too abruptly as one of the main stories was left in limbo.  Overall I enjoyed learning more about the Indian culture and especially reading the twists and turns of this family over many decades.  This book is recommended for readers of literary and multicultural fiction.