The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Yes, it’s a big book! Kind of daunting. But don’t judge a book by its number of pages. (Har har.) I loved this book! When it’s good, it’s nice to have a big, juicy book where it doesn’t leave you feeling like you wished there was more.
As the flap notes, The Covenant of Water spans the years 1900 to 1977. The book takes place in India. It starts with the main character, Kerela, entering upon an arranged marriage when she is 12 years old. She marries a widow from another village so she must leave her home and she becomes a mother immediately. She has a kind and loving sister-in-law who helps her settle in to her new home and new situation.
As she grows older, the young 12-year-old girl becomes known as “Big Ammachi.” Although I believe that the Indian culture is patriarchal, Big Ammachi is definitely the matriarch in her family. The story includes many characters—her husband, children, and other family members, friends and servants. They are pretty much all part of the St. Thomas Christians, which I had heard of but never knew much. I had heard that they were called St. Thomas Christians because they believed they descended from when the Apostly Thomas brought Christianity to India. The book didn’t go into the details or history of the church, but Big Ammachi’s faith definitely was a big part of her life, and I found that very interesting.
Another thing that wound through the story was what the family and others called “the condition.” In every generation there were one or more family members with a condition that made them severely disoriented whenever they were in the water. Often, they were drowned or killed by the condition and an interaction with water. Big Ammachi finds an old family tree and there’s a symbol that looks like a cross with water underneath (a wavy cross) to indicate someone who had the condition.
I thought it was fascinating.
There are more medical bits in the writing, too. Not surprising since Abraham Verghese is a doctor. (He is a doctor and professor at Stanford University.) His other book, Cutting for Stone, also had a lot of medical content. I imagine there are probably some who might find reading the medical details queasy-making, but to me, they make the book even more interesting.
As the years go on, one of Big Ammachi’s descendants goes into the medical field and researches the condition. That old family tree becomes a real treasure in learning more about the disease.
But the medical content isn’t all that makes the book interesting. The story is awesome, the characters become people you’re glad to have known, the writing puts you into the presence of the setting, the smells, the tastes, everything. I never once grew tired of reading, never once wondered when would it end. I enjoyed it cover to cover.
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