Ethiopian-American, best-selling author, and physician Abraham Verghese produced the novel Cutting For Stone which is filled with emotionally irresistible moments that are buried with mysteries that we find out throughout the book. When I first got the book,  the word “Stone” didn’t occur to me that it would be a metaphor for patients, the title also has another hidden meaning which I will further explain. The story takes place in 1954 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Missing Hospital where the Marion and Shiva stone are a product of a love scandal that British father Thomas Stone who was a surgeon and Indian mother Sister Mary Joseph Praise who was a nun and nurse. Sister Mary passed away during labor and Dr. Stone fled Ethiopia leaving Marion and Shiva behind because he didn’t know how to deal with the loss especially because he was the one that operated the surgery, Stone was also was not aware that those were his children that he birthed until his lover’s death.When the father fled, two doctors from Missing: Hema and Ghosh decide to become their adoptive parents. Hema always wanted children so it was destined for her to adopt the twins and Ghosh was Hema’s long-time admirer before he became her husband but he was never confident enough to portray his love to her. Since they both shared equal love towards the twins, it brought them together to create a family. Ghosh and Hema being doctors, they nurtured their passion towards medicine with the twins which inspired them to pursue medicine. Their medical destination is what creates the story because of all the experiences that they face either were heartbreaking or heart-melting because each scenario that happens in the novel makes an impact towards the way you perceive characters mainly as they were narrated from Marion’s viewpoint.Marion and Shiva were so close as they are growing up as Marion would call them: MarionShiva. The twins were born conjoined at the head then underwent surgery and became un-conjoined but they shared a spiritual connection in their brains, from Marion’s point of view which makes Shiva character unfairly described since all the actions that he has done is told by Marion which forms a barrier between the reader and character especially because it doesn’t allow us to gain full knowledge of Shiva’s life and thoughts. Marion was also the extrovert meaning he would do all the talking on his brothers’ behalf in social situations. Shiva, on the other hand, was an introvert and would answer questions with a literal meaning and known to be exceptionally academically smart.As Marion and Shiva grow older they start feeling emotional and sexual desires, the twins having same but very different personalities portrayed their needs differently. Marion fell in love Genet, who was his best friend and the daughter of Rosina the housemaid, and both of them promised one another to lose their virginities to each other when they get married. Shiva, on the other hand, would sleep with prostitutes on the weekends and isn’t able to form emotional connections with others. The outbreak happens with Genet betrays Marion and loses her virginity to Shiva which breaks the relationship that the twins shared, the twins bond is severely damaged and until the near end of the novel when Ghosh passes away.Genet is one of Marion’s main problems throughout the book as she causes him so much distress and agony while not only harming him emotionally but also by nearly almost destroying his professional career as a doctor. She joins a radical political group fighting for the independence of Eritrea, which was the reasoning for her to hijack an airplane since Marion is connected to Genet he is forced into fleeing the country to avoid questions and to avoid getting arrested. Marion immediately grows hatred towards Genet and plans to kill her if he to see her again, before Marion leaves the country Ghosh dies from Leukemia and while he dying, Ghosh tells Marion that the wants him to find Dr. Stone and tells him that he forgives him and also to make peace with Shiva. That night Shiva and Marion started reconciling and slept on the same mattress but on opposites sides and woke up by there heads lying next to each other.Once Marion goes to the U.S he meets Genet, they have sex together which leads him to catch hepatitis C from Genet. Marion is in need of a liver and Shiva offers him, Stone is the one who operates the experimental surgery that they are both aware of. Shiva doesn’t survive surgery and once again, it was under Dr. Stones table. This novel is called Cutting for Stone because the beginning and the end consist of Dr. Stone losing his own blood in surgery.