The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese
Chronicling the lives of a Kerala, India-based family plagued by genetic afflictions (or maybe a curse) – Abraham Verghese’s lauded novel effectively blends drama with cultural and historical perspectives but it also sometimes struggles under the weight of its own expansiveness.
Spanning 77 years, the story opens in 1900 with Big Ammachi, a 12-year-old girl married off to a 40-year-old widower. While this initially felt icky, Verghese handles the arrangement with sensitivity, using the relationship to explore caste, duty and earned love. Big Ammachi evolves into a resilient matriarch, and in many ways, is the anchor of the narrative.
While I wouldn’t categorize this as medical fiction, the author's background as a physician was evident, with him weaving the history of tropical diseases and medicine into the story. While some might perceive these explorations as tangential, I found them captivating, offering an authentic and non-sensationalized perspective on a facet of life rarely encountered in the West.
Initially these moments came to life through the story of Digby, a Glaswegian surgeon who moves to India to further his career. His arc — navigating colonial hierarchies, a tragic love affair and eventual redemption at a leper colony — was, to me, the book’s highlight.
Unfortunately, the narrative lost momentum in the middle, bogged down by an overabundance of characters and subplots that made it feel unfocused. The early chapters established a vivid sense of place, but as the story shifted its attention to Philipose, Big Ammachi’s son, it felt like a bait-and-switch. I found myself waiting for Big Ammachi or Digby to reappear.
However, once I recognized that the story’s core was about tracing the individual journeys of the four (not two) main characters — Big Ammachi, Digby, Philipose and Mariamma (Philipose’s daughter) — in their quests for peace and happiness, I could better appreciate Verghese’s craft. Though sections occasionally felt overly long, “Water” remained consistently engaging.
One of the novel’s most poignant threads is its exploration of stigma, particularly surrounding leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and familial disapproval. Mariamma’s journey through medical school — facing sexism and systemic bias — brought this home.
Her discovery of the genetic basis for her family’s “water curse” offers one of the story’s most satisfying payoffs, tying together the personal and the scientific in an authentic way. Initially, I questioned the purpose of this narrative thread, as it was one of many Verghese introduced that veered into magical realism (think “One Hundred Years of Solitude”). However, the way he wove it into the fabric of familial lore made it feel organic, a genuine curiosity — and concern — for each generation of the family. What might have easily come across as kitschy felt natural.
Still, the novel suffers from bloat. Digby is sidelined for much of the middle, and his connection to Mariamma — revealed late in the story (spoiler: he’s her birth father) — felt rushed despite its narrative significance. The tidy resolution felt at odds with the novel’s scope and interconnectedness.
Despite its flaws — and they were mostly structural versus technical — “Water” showcases Verghese’s extraordinary narrative skill. And, if writing doesn’t work out, he could have another side hustle as an audiobook narrator.
His performance of the text — complete with impressive accents and the right amount of emotion — kept me engaged even as the plot meandered. If only every author that decided to narrate their literary fiction had a fraction of the skill Verghese showed here.
Read this for the complex, interconnected characters and medical mystery but know it can sometimes feel overindulgent. A worthwhile read, but best approached with tempered expectations.
Rating (story): 3.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (personal library)
Dates read: December 17 – January 7, 2025
Multi-tasking: Not recommended. This is a dense book with a lot of characters and intersecting plots. While the author does a solid job narrating the story, if you aren’t paying close attention you’ll get lost in the minutia of his storytelling.
