** The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water is a sprawling family saga mixed with the history of the Malabar Coast of India, and the larger country, which reminded me of Cutting for Stone, by the same author, the action of which takes place in Ethiopia. Like Cutting for Stone, it features many medical adventures and enough familial misadventures to annihilate multitudes. It all felt too much, like an overgrown Zola novel (this one is 800 pages, way too long!)–although portions are lovingly observed and rendered amongst the mawkishness. One of my favorite moments was the overtaking of a preacher’s fire-and-brimstone sermon by a local translator keen on building a hospital and adept at “mistranslating” the sermon into a very successful appeal for funds.