Lakshmi Bhat at her blog, Mukhamani, recently shared how during a busy time she made time to finish reading a novel. About The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese, she said, “It is one of the best books I have read in recent times.” I wanted a book that I could say the same about, so right away I went to my Libby app and was able to check out the audio book. The 30-hour novel was narrated by the author, who had amazing voices for all his characters–English in all kinds of dialects–Scottish, British, Indian. Some Malayalam too, and probably other languages (I forget). From the beginning, his wonderful voice kept me enthralled, and then I started falling in love with a young bride named Mariamma and her patient and kind husband; and in Part 2, at first I was disappointed to leave the couple in Kerala, but when the story moved to Scotland, I quickly fell in love with a new character, an aspiring surgeon named Digby.
Taking time to listen to the story each day during the last two weeks was a highlight. I would highly recommend The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. As Oprah said when she chose it for her book club book, “One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”
I finished the book on Saturday, which was also the day we started watching for Hurricane Hilary (or tropical storm Hilary). She was coming through our area with predictions of up to six inches of rain. (Our annual total rainfall is about eight inches.) We had some thunder, lightning, and showers on Friday evening, then a bit more on Saturday and Sunday morning. We expected it to be crazy winds and rains; I don’t know why we kept watching for it earlier than they said (which was Sunday afternoon), but we did. It was so long in waiting for it, that we began to think it was not going be so bad.
But by Sunday afternoon, just on schedule, the rain poured, and the wind finally blew. (We had battened down the hatches, shored up our little tree, and put everything away that would have blown to the next town.) We lost power for a while. Then we went to bed and slept. The storm passed sometime in the night, and Monday morning was sunny. We had a total of four inches of rain over the weekend. It was quite uneventful, but thankfully the weather service prepared us and we followed the advice and stayed home so we didn’t get in on the flash flooding roads.
Schools were closed on Monday, as there were many roads closed. We took a bike ride later on Monday afternoon. On our bike ride, we saw just one uprooted tree, and lots of sand and dirt covered roads. There wasn’t as much damage in our area as there was in the lower desert, like Palm Springs.
Denise,
I’m so glad Hilary turned into a tropical storm before reaching landfall. I remember August monsoons from my time in Arizona. We had school closures because of rain once. My school was in a valley, and the locker area flooded. Anyway, I saw that Palm Springs had flash flooding. We’ve had rain, too, and it’s likely from Hilary,
I have The Covenant of Water on my TBR, but it’s so long! I’ve had trouble devoting that much time to a book this summer.
Denise, I was thinking of you as I watched the weather reports from VA. Glad to know today, you are safe. And thanks for a book recommendation. Heading to the bookstore today! I recommended a YA novel to my friend Marilyn and she blogged about it and a little more. You might like reading it and her post: https://pelicansandprose.com/2023/08/22/probability/
I want to comment about the book because I LOVED It, and finally, I have some friends who are finishing it and can talk about the ending with me, but this post is more stunning with all of the pictures. I’m relieved you are safe– sand can be cleared!
Denise, I’m so glad you are okay. You and Stacey have been on my mind this week ever since my daughter in Nevada told me that you all would be getting a year’s worth of rain in a day and that the flooding drainage is not like it is where she grew up. She’s fine, too, but I was worried for the washouts. I’m so glad you shared some photos. I will check out this book for sure. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m putting the book on my list – top of the list. I love epic reads. I’m so glad Hillary turned into a tropical storm – it’s amazing the power of nature to bring beauty and and destruction. I’m glad you were safe and dry.
I love this book so! My husband, a slower reader than I, has been riveted. I spent four epic days in India, wept and rejoiced. I love these characters, know them so well. At our book club yesterday we were supposed to be discussing Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, brilliant in its own right, but we ended up, the three of us who had read Verghese, touting The Covenant… and pretty much decided to read it as a group. (We have read Cutting for Stone as well as The Tennis Partner.) You gave such a beautiful “teaser” here: “From the beginning, his wonderful voice kept me enthralled, and then I started falling in love with a young bride named Mariamma and her patient and kind husband; and in Part 2, at first I was disappointed to leave the couple in Kerala, but when the story moved to Scotland, I quickly fell in love with a new character, an aspiring surgeon named Digby.” Perfect!
I am so glad you are safe and avoided major destruction. As Melanie said, “sand can be cleared.”
I’ll gladly take the book recommendation. You sure know how to make it attractive. I can relate to the waiting of the storm (thankfully no hurricanes). In parts of Estonian the storm included massive hail that did a lot of damage. By the time it arrived where I live, it was mostly heavy rain. I was fortunate to be able to stay home.
I texted back & forth with my son in the San Diego area… he said the storm wasn’t bad there (I think I bothered him more than the storm did). There are so many not as fortunate with storms and fires… some areas have years of rebuilding ahead.
I read Cutting for Stone. I will add The Covenant of Water to my TBR list. Right now I am reading The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Greene- it is the first read for the book discussion group at my NEW branch library that just opened Saturday!!