BookLife Review: The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese

Southwest India, early 20th Century, historical fiction, Madras, colonialism, arranged marriage, castes, inland waterways, drowning, leprosy, medical history, Scotland

So, the big question: is this 724 page tome worth the read? The answer is a resounding yes. Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water is one of those masterpieces of historical fiction that weaves a tale over generations by creating characters in each generation that we care deeply about.

It begins with the arranged marriage of Mariamma, a 12 year-old girl who travels by boat to be married to a forty-year old man (I know, different culture, different rules). Fortunately for her, he is a kind and generous man (i.e., he waits a few years). Mariamma is a water-lover, who is restored by immersing herself in the rivers and waterways of her homeland. However, she joins a family in which water is feared, because of a mysterious condition that besets the family - someone in each generation is incapable of swimming and tragically drowns in this land of inland waterways.

Mariamma is her husband’s second wife and inherits his son, JoJo. Mariamma and her husband give birth to Philipose, a son to join brother JoJo. Philipose anchors the second generation of the family but its flower is Elsie. Philipose meets Elsie as a child when she is already a talented artist. Later Philipose is smitten with a woman on a train whom he does not recognize as Elsie. The marriage match is made on the promise that Philipose will permit Elsie to pursue her art throughout their marriage rather than undertaking traditional responsibilities for household duties. They welcome son, Ninan, and daughter, grandmother’s namesake, Mariamma.

Into this tight community comes a Scottish surgeon, Dr. Digby Kilgour. Trained in Glasgow, Digby’s Catholicism renders him essentially ineligible for elite training at Protestant institutions in the British system. He finds opportunity abroad with the empire’s Indian Medical Service in Madras. Digby suffers a tragedy and a horrific injury that lands him in Southern India to recuperate with patients-turned-friends. It is here that he is introduced to a leprosy community where he rediscovers purpose. Young Elsie, the artist, helps him regain the use of his hands through art therapy.

The families each suffer heart-rending tragedies as the family’s curse, known as The Condition, snakes its way through their family tree. The tragedy tears Elsie and Philipose apart. Their daughter, Mariamma, pursues a career in medicine in mid-century Madras. Her journey brings her full circle back to her home community with science and knowledge to address the family’s Condition.

In this abbreviated review, I purposely avoided spoilers that name the tragedies. Nevertheless, the intensity of the story and its tragedies are the grist that make the story so compelling. Verghese (author of previous bestseller Cutting for Stone) has extraordinary timing as a writer, allowing the reader sufficient time and pages to know the primary characters deeply before switching gears to introduce another thread to the story. His background as a doctor gives credibility to the deep medical issues and environments in which the story is embedded.

Coursing throughout the novel is its titular character, water. It surrounds the community and its people and its presence is a multi-dimensional covenant with the people of the book. It is a primary mode of transportation. It is a source of irrigation for the crops the estate produces and relies upon. It soothes and refreshes in the relenting climate of the place. It is the currency of the cleansing and devastating monsoons. It carries disease and progress, brides to grooms, and children to schooling. It is both the giver of life and the instrument of death. It is a metaphor for time passing, for change and for constancy. Verghese’s language renders all of this true, and his gifted writing causes water, in countless forms, to flow through this masterpiece as a constant.