When entering puberty their relationship to Genet, the daughter of Rosina, a domestic help, finally tears them apart. Over time, though, individual differences begin to become pronounced. Through their parents, both boys are exposed to medicine and taught at the hospital. Ghosh is imprisoned, then released, in the aftermath of the coup, due to his friendship with Mebratu.

There is an unsuccessful rebellion by Haile Selassie's bodyguard, General Mebratu. The tissue link between the twins has been separated at birth and the two grow up together being very close initially.īoth twins are exposed to the changing political environment in Ethiopia. Ghosh teaches himself surgery to replace Stone. Marion Sims) and Shiva (after the Hindu deity). Orphaned at birth, the pair grow up in the household of two physicians of Missing, both from Madras, the obstetrician Kalpana Hemlatha (Hema) and Abhi Ghosh, who fall in love while caring for the infants. Their father, Thomas Stone, the English surgeon of Missing, abandons them and disappears. Their mother, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, an Indian Carmelite nun, dies during childbirth. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called 'Missing' in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa, in September 1954.

The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. With its positive reception, Barack Obama put it on his summer reading list and the book was optioned for adaptations. When first published, the novel was on The New York Times Best Seller list for two years and generally received well by critics. The book includes both a deep description of medical procedures and an exploration of the human side of medical practices. It is a saga of twin brothers, orphaned by their mother's death at their births and forsaken by their father. Cutting for Stone (2009) is a novel written by Ethiopian-born Indian-American medical doctor and author Abraham Verghese.

Cutting for stone novel