Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. It becomes Missing Hospital as the natives cannot distinguish the words. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Raised by 2 surgeons, Ghosh and Hema, both from India they came together to work in Missing hospital. Ghosh has loved Hema from afar but the birth brings them closer until their love merges and together they raise the twins. Insuring in the twins a love of medicine. But while identical, Marion and Shiva are as different as their names.
As they grow their passion for the same woman tears them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
I partially listened to it on CD and mostly read it for my work bookclub. I could not put it down after awhile, I just had to know how it would end. I do not enjoy family saga books and do not care for medical descriptions but these were done so beautifully I found myself fascinated by the story. Verghese has an extensive bibliography at the end of the novel and you can see how he developed the story and shows his love of medicine and for Ethiopia.