Abraham Verghese

I'm shocked, delighted, and overflowing with gratitude that @oprah chose THE COVENANT OF WATER for @oprahsbookclub. What a blessing! "It's one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life, and I've been reading since I was three."— @oprah

Abraham Verghese

Proud to be on President @barackobama’s reading list with writers I greatly admire! James McBride and I were honored to receive the National Humanities Medal from President Obama at the same time... I just saw James again in NYC. Love his book! And I love this list!

Abraham Verghese

A book that I’ve had a love affair with ever since I encountered the seventh edition in 1974. My ambition is always to read it cover to cover before the next edition, but for the last five editions I haven’t come close. In my defense, it’s 4,384 pages.

Abraham Verghese

When I put down the book, I felt I was waking after a vivid, portentous dream, but one whose edges were now rapidly crumbling. That feeling should have been dissatisfying but wasn’t; instead, I was in awe of Deb’s imagination and razor-sharp prose.

Abraham Verghese

Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance is the kind of book that stops time. You enter another world, live a full life span, and return to find that it’s only Tuesday!

Abraham Verghese

I’m drawn to big epic novels, and this was all that at over 800 pages

Abraham Verghese

I had only sampled Saul Bellow (“Humboldt’s Gift”) when I was in my 20s. I picked up “The Adventures of Augie March” during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic. I found it stunning. It left me no choice but to systematically read everything of his.

Abraham Verghese

The oppressive conditions described in the fictional Welsh mining town so captivated the public’s imagination that it ostensibly shares responsibility for the creation of the [NHS]. A generation of physicians outside of America name [it] as the book that called them to medicine.

Abraham Verghese

You can read a textbook on “end of life,” but to come close to being in the shoes of a patient with a terminal condition, Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is the required text.

Abraham Verghese

Great conversation @vivek_murthy & @erictopol. "Our greatest moments are when our head and our heart fuse together, when our sense of mission is married to our knowledge, and we bring that to bear in the service of the patient in front of us." https://t.co/uBQeiWjJ07