Abraham Verghese

A very well written book. After finishing this and jumping to my next read really emphasized for me how good a writer Verghese is. The book follows 3 generations of an Indian family through all their hardships and generally very little good happens for these people. Yes we all die, but this book dwelled on the tragedies of each generation, their family members and friends. Outside of Big Ammachi no one dies of old age. Although Big Ammachi lived a long life, it was a hard life that had her living through every family tragedy. The other families in this book (that come together in the end) have more than their fair share of life tragedies too from leprosy, a long family line of brain tumors, being disfigured in a fire and having a loved one die in the same fire, drownings after drownings, and it goes on. There really weren't many pages to make you smile, just sad, sadder and saddest. Life is hard but even the most tragic characters have a day or two to make you smile. All that sadness and still it was a good read.… (more)