The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Published by Grove Press
Publication date: May 2, 2023
Genres: Fiction, Cultural, Historical, Literary
Abraham Verghese is back with a new novel 14 years after his critically acclaimed bestseller, Cutting for Stone. The Covenant of Water is a saga spanning 70 years about one family with an unusual history—in every generation there is a family member with an aversion to water who ends up drowning. Verghese uses this mysterious affliction as the thread woven through a sprawling tapestry set in an India rocked by the political upheavals of the 20th century.
The Covenant of Water begins with Mariamma arriving in Parambil, a small village at India’s southernmost tip. It’s 1900, she’s 12-years-old, and has been sold in marriage to a 43-year-old stranger. Thankfully, this is not the beginning of a life of abuse and trauma for a little girl. Mariamma’s new husband is a quiet widower. He knows he’s married a child and treats her as such, asking only that she care for their home and his young son. When years have passed and Mariama is a young woman the relationship becomes a real marriage.
Mariamma settles into her surroundings, falling in love with her new family, and acquiring the nickname of Big Ammachi (Big Mother) despite her youth and tiny build. She continues trying to solve the puzzle that is her unusual husband. A fearless man of few words he abhors getting wet, to the point of only bathing with a sponge and a bucket of water. The mystery deepens when Big Ammachi discovers family records that include notations about bodies of water, the names of other members with water-related deaths, and words of caution.
This puzzle is set aside when The Covenant briskly segues across the globe to Glasgow where Digby Kilgour is a young, talented surgeon who finds the prejudice against Catholics in Scotland to be so virulent he can’t find a hospital for his residency. He joins the Indian Medical Service and lands in Madras to get the experience he needs, until a personal tragedy ends his career dreams and forces him to leave the city. He begins a solitary new life high in the hills as the manager on a friend’s plantation.
Given the size of India it’s difficult to grasp how or why these two characters will ever come into contact and for the majority of the novel they don’t. Verghese chooses to keep The Covenant of Water focused on Big Ammachi’s story and Digby doesn’t resurface until the last quarter. This is true of several key characters. For readers with fractured focus this is an impediment to the compelling stories shared throughout the novel. Hibernating characters, coupled with two world wars, the details of Britain’s abusive reign of power in India, and the intricacies of performing surgery (warning if you’re squeamish) increase the potential for the narrative thread to be lost.
This leaves me mildly conflicted about the novel. It is a wondrous accomplishment of beauty and imagination, a lush and evocative experience as sinuous and graceful as the waters of Kerala. But at 700 pages the journey requires the patience and commitment to forget about a destination and embrace a more languorous momentum. If this sounds like perfect reading, dive in. For me, the length unraveled the vital ties between characters and the plot. I loved The Covenant of Water but without a sense of urgency this jewel lost some of its brilliance.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Grove Press in exchange for an honest review.*
Catherine,
Your reviews are always so beautifully written! I can’t wait to try this one. Thanks!
Thank you! This was a tough one to write because I loved aspects of the book so much, but it fell short in other ways.
Fell short pfffftttttt!
700 pages is a hard sell for me unless I am assured that the length is worth it. I loved Cutting for Stone so was hoping this book would be equally good but it sounds like it’s not quite successful. Maybe I need to start a retirement reading booklist like Sarah! Because if time wasn’t limited, like I hope it won’t be when I retire, I’d probably check it out!
Sadly, I can’t guarantee that which is why I only gave it 4 stars. There were so many tangents and then intimate details that felt unnecessary. And yet, when I was reading it, I was gone into his world.
Hmm. I must find time to read it sometime! And I’m glad you made it through & reviewed it for us. I was asked to read this for PW to review back in like January but I had to beg off because of our big move … I simply had no time or concentration for a 700 page epic saga then … though I am a big fan of Verghese’s … ever since The Tennis Partner. He was a master then … and I’m hoping he still is. It seems he’s been working on this new one since like the end of time eh? But I suspect he’s busy doctoring in addition to writing. I think I will be a bit squeamish to the surgery scenes, LoL. Congrats on the epic read. I plan to get to it.
You do not have the time for this book right now! Settle in when things quiet down- maybe this winter?
Yes. I agree. We are still up to our necks in boxes to unpack, furniture to buy, storage to empty, and trying to get control of a farm like acreage. Whoa moving. Remind me not to do it again. This might be our forever home till we’re 75, LOL. I started Demon Copperhead for book club and I dont have time for that either.
Are you done with your move??
Thankfully, yes, but Seattle is too big and expensive for retirement so we have one more move to go. Where that will be- who knows? Definitely in the PNW, but probably Oregon.
I bought the Audible version which was read by the author. Unfortunately I got lost in parts of it due to the accent of the author. He tried his best to imitate various accents including the Glasgow accent which unfortunately was not only unsuccessful but also very difficult to understand and left lost at the end.
Oh my! I can’t imagine trying this on audio! Although the descriptive sections in an Indian accent would be lovely, but too much else going on for that to go well. Unless they had used different narrators for the different accents. Interesting that Verghese wanted to narrate it.
Yes it was NOT a smart decision!!!!
A glossary of the Indian nouns would have been ILLUMINATING and
a list of characters, who they are, would have been ANCHORING.
True. There was a lot to absorb.
I am here because I got lost on part two— hmmm
I can see that. I love his writing but this had nowhere near the pull of Cutting For Stone.
I agree with Larry H’s comment bout the need for list of Indian words throughout the book that would be helpful; also great need for list of characters. Is there a website to provide a list of characters?
It was a lot, wasn’t it? I have no idea about a website, but there may be a reading guide available at your library with that kind of info.
I am halfway through this and I am close to putting it down. Maybe reading it earlier in the day instead of near bedtime would be better. I have a medical background, so those parts are done well. His character chapters can be short and choppy. I was expecting the impact of Cutting for Stone, but it is not there. Not sure I will finish this.
Completely understand. So much goes into creating the atmosphere that I found the characters lacking a bit as well. It’s made me want to read Cutting for Stone again because I felt the same way, but can’t even remember anything other than the bare bones of the plot.