NOTE: This article is a republication- Source: Oprah Daily (by Wadzanai Mhute).
Oprah announced that The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese, is her 101st book club pick today on CBS Mornings.
Oprah was enthralled by her selection. “It’s one of the best books I’ve read in my entire life,” she said. “It’s epic. It’s transportive. Many moments during the read I had to stop and remember to breathe. I couldn’t put the book down until the very last page. It was unputdownable!”
Inspired by his great-grandmother, who, as a child, married a widower, Verghese introduces the fictional Big Ammachi, matriarch of a Christian community in Kerala, India. We follow three generations from 1900 to 1977 through mysterious drownings, afflictions, colonialism, and independence. This epic tale soars with lyricism and tension, transporting you across time and continents. So clear your schedule and immerse yourself in this instant classic, which Verghese, a physician, wrote while simultaneously working as a professor of medicine at Stanford University.
“Hearing the melodious and signature voice of the person who has done more for books in America than anyone alive, then hearing her passion for my book, which she’d read more closely than any reader I know, well, I teared up,” says Verghese. “My thoughts were flashing back through the decade-plus of writing The Covenant of Water, during which time my mother had died. The call felt like a miracle. I’d been reflexively standing throughout the conversation and when we hung up, I’m not ashamed to say I got to my knees and gave thanks. Mom would have approved.”
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