Easily one of the best books I’ve ever read. Opens with the jaw dropping birth of twins Marion and Shiva (book is told from Marion’s POV) in Ethiopia, to Indian nun and white British surgeon Thomas Stone. Story follows the lifelong journey of said twins through engrossing, shocking and even downright ironic events - and the kind of madness that love instills. Trigger warning for female genital mutilation and female fistula (which the source of said fistulas in real life is both enraging and heartbreaking). In fact, as a result of this book, I decided to start contributing to the Fistula Foundation to help women who find themselves in these terrible situations - we have the science to fix it, just need to make it available. I was fortunate to get to see Abraham Verghese speak at the 2023 Texas Book Festival. He is a doctor by day, which explains the thorough medical detail throughout this masterpiece. This book took him 10 years to write this 650+ page saga, and was well worth it. I’m looking forward to reading his more recent (and possibly last) book, The Covenant of Water.