I recently enrolled in the library and have been enjoying audiobooks before bedtime. My sister Elena recommended The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese—best known as both a physician and a novelist. I loved how his medical background shone through the story, woven into the illnesses, doctors, and treatments that appear along the way. Listening to the audiobook brought an added richness. Verghese’s exquisite use of language came alive in his own narration. His voice, layered with carefully chosen accents for each character, added an authenticity and warmth that made the experience even more real. Though I’ve never been to India, every evening the story transported me there. In that quiet hour before sleep, I felt I was truly present—smelling the monsoon rains, hearing palm fronds whip in the wind, and even sensing the pungent sweetness of overripe jackfruit. And when tragedy struck—a mother’s cry at the loss of her firstborn son—it pierced straight to my heart. The landscape, the characters, the language—it all unfolded so vividly that it felt lived rather than read. At nearly 800 pages, the novel is vast, but every chapter is worth savoring. Spanning three generations in Kerala, it begins in 1900 with a twelve-year-old girl married off to a man three times her age. Over decades of hardship, love, and change, her granddaughter—now a doctor—ultimately uncovers a long-hidden family mystery. Central to the family’s story is a hereditary condition that causes at least one person in every generation to drown. This “Condition” casts a shadow of grief and loss across their lives, yet it also shapes their resilience and love. We watch Big Ammachi, the family matriarch, grow from a frightened young bride into a wise, beloved pillar of strength. Around her, an unforgettable cast of children, grandchildren, and community members fill the pages—Philipose and his artistic wife Elsie, their loyal servant Shamuel and his son Joppan, the tender Baby Mol, and many others, each drawn with depth and care. Running alongside the family saga is the journey of Digby Kilgore, a young Scottish doctor whose path takes him from misfit in the British Raj to healer at a leprosy sanctuary—an unlikely but vital thread that eventually ties back into the family’s story. The novel is as much about medicine and faith as it is about family and survival. This Christian community, tracing its roots to the apostles, endures profound cultural and historical shifts. Through it all, Big Ammachi bears witness to a century of change, grief, and resilience. Verghese’s gifts as a storyteller are everywhere: breathtaking scenes of medical ingenuity, unexpected humor, unforgettable characters, and prose so lush it feels almost sacred. The Covenant of Water is not only a family saga but also a hymn to medicine, to the endurance of the human spirit, and to the sacrifices of those who came before us. So much happens in these pages, but nothing feels wasted. To me, this novel is more than just a story—it’s one of the finest books I have ever read in my life.