Correction: I’m Jennifer Kassebaum of Flint Hills Books with an update on my Radio Readers BookByte covering The Covenant of Water, which is one of my favorite books of this summer – and the year. I need to take a moment to correct my pronunciation of the author’s name. The correct pronunciation is Abraham Varghese. I had the good fortune of having a native of the Kerala region in India visit the bookstore after I recorded the review. She corrected my pronunciation and so I wanted to correct my error with apologies to a very capable and worthy author and to the listeners of this podcast.
This is Jennifer Kassebaum, owner of Flint Hills Books in Council Grove Kansas, for High Plains Public Radio Reader’s Summer Book Club Reading List.
Summer is the season for swimming pools and time at the lake. Regardless of whether you are a water person or not, if you are reader that enjoys an immersive novel – a book in which you can lose yourself- you must add THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese to your summer reading list.
As many HPPR listeners may know, Abraham Verghese is the author of CUTTING FOR STONE, an epic tale that is set in Ethiopia and in which the reader learns about the political history of Addis Ababa. In THE COVENANT OF WATER, Dr. Verghese chose to write about his homeland of South India.
The novel opens in 1900, with the arranged marriage of a 12-year-old girl to a much older widower. This young girl is the heart of the book, and becomes “Big Ammachi” or Big Mother, who is a stepmother to her husband’s young son, JoJo. After several years of marriage and the arrival of a daughter, Big Ammachi learns her husband’s aversion to water - his refusal to travel by water or to have anything to do with water – is due to a family history of death by drowning, or as it is known in the family “the condition.” How Verghese, who is a medical doctor, weaves ‘the condition” into the story and arc of the book is a testament to his skill as a writer.
THE COVENANT OF WATER is a big book, with 715 pages, which may intimidate even the most enthusiastic reader. But most of the chapters are quite short. Despite its heft, the book reads like a story that is much shorter. And through the pages, the reader becomes familiar with the history and culture of the Kerala region in South India. I did not anticipate how much I would enjoy learning about this region.
Of course, we cannot discuss South India at the turn of the century without addressing colonialism. Yes, it is addressed in the book, in part through the character of Digby Kilgour, a Scottish boy who was raised by a loving, single mother who is forced to return to her mother’s home after being laid off for protesting for better working conditions at the Singer Sewing Machine factory where she works. Digby’s grandmother is cruel to her daughter and her grandson. Indeed, there is a Dickensian quality to this book that readers may appreciate: the breadth of the saga, the flawed characters who move the book forward and create the tension and appeal of the book. Until, before the reader knows it, we have traveled from 1900 to 1977 and Big Ammachi’s granddaughter, Mariamma, is fulfilling the prophecy that Big Ammachi prayed for.
Religion, art, politics, medicine, a mother’s love, and redemption – the plot of this book has so much to offer the reader. To complement the story, sketches by the author’s cousin set the scene for each of the ten parts that comprise the story.
I started my summer by treating myself to this book in early May, around Mother’s Day. I challenge readers who can find a mother in literature who personifies love like Big Ammachi. Yes, THE COVENANT OF WATER is a big book but do not be intimidated. That ending is worth every page of the journey.
