“The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese, a bestseller chosen by Oprah’s Book Club, a favorite of Barack Obama, and a 37-week fixture on The New York Times bestseller list, has been released in Ukrainian.
Abraham Verghese, a practicing physician and professor of medicine at Stanford, penned “The Covenant of Water” while concurrently working in healthcare. This saga was selected by Oprah’s Book Club and, in 2023–2024, ranked among the most borrowed books from public libraries in the USA. Verghese firmly believes writing and medicine are inseparable. As a doctor, he is trained to notice subtle signals: symptoms, gestures, changes in condition. He transfers this observational skill into his prose. What else is noteworthy about this author and his expansive saga?
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The events of “The Covenant of Water” span from 1900 to 1977 and focus on a family from the Christian community of St. Thomas (to which the author’s family belongs) in Kerala, South India. The novel opens with a scene where 12-year-old Mariammu, after her father’s passing, is sent by boat to the Parambil estate, where she marries a 40-year-old widower and becomes mistress of approximately 500 acres. Later, she is known as Big Ammachi and leads the family for several decades.
According to Verghese, in Kerala in the early 20th century, marriages like Mariammu’s were typical: children were formally wed but essentially remained part of the extended family, commencing married life only upon reaching maturity.
A central theme of the narrative is a family curse: in each generation, someone inevitably perishes by water. Characters attempt to rationalize and control this inexplicable phenomenon. Children are forbidden to go near rivers, urged to avoid boats and even swimming, yet death by water still occurs. To understand this, consider that Kerala boasts 44 rivers, numerous backwaters, lakes, and inland canals. In such an environment, abstaining from contact with water imposes significant limitations on daily life.
The plot unfolds through several parallel storylines. One follows the story of Scottish doctor Digby Kilgour, who arrives in colonial India in 1933 after professional setbacks in Glasgow. In Great Britain, he faced class and religious barriers, prompting his move to study at Madras Medical College, a key educational institution in colonial India. Verghese himself studied there.
Another significant thread concerns the work of Swedish doctor Rune Orquist, who treats patients with leprosy. The theme of leprosy stems from the author’s childhood observations in Africa and his studies in India, where the disease was prevalent. Verghese was born in Ethiopia, where his parents, natives of Kerala, went to teach during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. Following the outbreak of civil war, Verghese emigrated to the United States. Thus, the novel reflects real aspects of the epidemic: a long incubation period, the necessity of prolonged treatment, and social stigma – the isolation and exclusion of patients from society.
“The Covenant of Water” can be read as a fictional chronicle of medical advancements in India during the 20th century: from colonial hospitals to gradual shifts in the perception of leprosy, obstetrics, addiction, and mental health. Verghese illustrates not only technical progress but also a transformation in thinking – how fear, stigma, and religious beliefs progressively yield to a scientific approach, though they never entirely vanish.
The inspiration for creating the saga’s world came not from abstract research but from concrete materials – drawings and recollections of life in Kerala from Verghese’s mother, who was nearly ninety when he began working on the story.
Abraham Verghese wrote “The Covenant of Water” before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing his practice as a physician at Stanford Medical School. He literally assembled it on a large board: listing characters, mapping connections, and noting plot points. As the text grew, this diagram was constantly revised. The author would then photograph the board, erase it, and start anew. He mentions that an initial plan existed, but over time, the characters began to deviate from his intentions.
The decision to write an extensive work was deliberate. Verghese openly states his ambition to create a grand narrative, akin to those he enjoys reading. His reasoning is straightforward: a large number of pages provides a format that suspends time, allowing readers to live through decades within days of reading.
In Verghese’s prose, private life is inextricably linked to the social context, and the characters’ destinies are shaped by major historical currents. The caste system and its restrictions form a significant backdrop to the saga. Characters encounter direct prohibitions on interaction or marriage. These limitations are not abstract issues but practical rules that dictate life trajectories.
Verghese populates his text with minor characters who appear for a few scenes, vividly illustrating the workings of this world. Even the depiction of the elephant Damodaran, which, incidentally, has a realistic basis. Working elephants were common in South India, used for transporting timber or in religious ceremonies. Verghese recalls regularly seeing elephants led to the river for bathing during his childhood. In the novel, Damodaran is endowed with almost human qualities, but this is not fantasy; rather, it’s an attempt to convey the experience of interacting with an animal perceived in the local culture as part of the community.
Notably, “The Covenant of Water” is sustained not so much by events as by pauses – moments where nothing significant occurs, yet these are precisely what shape the future. Verghese consistently shifts the focus from climaxes to the intervals between them: conversations, daily routines, observations, minor medical details. In this sense, the novel operates almost contrary to expectations of a grand saga: instead of accelerating, it decelerates the reading pace. And precisely through this, it allows for a deeper understanding of how life unfolds over the long haul.
The book was published by Artbooks