Book Series Guide

Abraham Verghese

Author guide

Abraham Verghese Books in Order

Abraham Verghese was born in Addis Ababa in 1955 to Indian parents and completed his medical training at Madras Medical College before moving to the United States. He earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1991 and became a physician, educator, and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. His writing includes two memoirs about medicine, illness, friendship, and loss, as well as the novels Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water. His fiction and nonfiction frequently explore medical practice, cultural identity, displacement, family, and the relationship between physicians and patients.

memoirmedical nonfictionliterary fictionhistorical fictionshort fiction

Catalog record updated .

Abraham Verghese's Newest Book

Cover of Abscond: A Short Story

Abscond: A Short Story

short-story · First published 2025

It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone

A strong entry point to Verghese's literary fiction and medical themes.

Cover of My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS

My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS

His first book and a foundational memoir about medicine and the AIDS crisis.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (2)
  1. Cutting for Stone

    novel · 2009

    Marion and Shiva Stone, born in a mission hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s, are twin sons of an illicit union between an Indian nun and British doctor. bound by birth but with widely different temperaments they grow up together, in a…

  2. The Covenant of Water

    novel · 2023

    A stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret. Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala,…

Nonfiction (2)
  1. My Own Country: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS

    memoir · 1994

  2. The Tennis Partner: A Doctor's Story of Friendship and Loss

    memoir · 1998

    An unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live and how they survive, from Abraham Verghese, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water, an Oprah's Book Club Pick. “Heartbreaking. .…

Short fiction (1)
  1. Abscond: A Short Story

    short-story · 2025

    It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded…

Frequently asked questions about Abraham Verghese

Who is Abraham Verghese?

Abraham Verghese is an Ethiopian-born physician, educator, and author of Indian heritage. He has been a professor at Stanford Medicine and is known for combining clinical teaching with literary writing and advocacy for humane patient care.

Sources: abrahamverghese.org (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)

Where was Abraham Verghese born, and what is his educational background?

He was born in Addis Ababa in 1955 to Indian parents. He completed medical training at Madras Medical College and later earned an MFA in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Sources: abrahamverghese.org (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)

How did medicine influence Abraham Verghese’s writing?

His early work as a hospital orderly and his care of patients with AIDS in rural Tennessee convinced him that medicine’s human experience could not be captured by science alone. These encounters informed his writing and his emphasis on healing, listening, and the physician-patient relationship.

Sources: abrahamverghese.org (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)

What awards has Abraham Verghese received?

His honors include the Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities and the National Humanities Medal. Stanford also lists a Guggenheim Fellowship and several honorary doctorates among his distinctions.

Sources: heinzawards.org (opens in a new tab)neh.gov (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)

What is Abraham Verghese’s legacy in medicine?

His legacy is closely associated with humanism in medicine: he founded Stanford’s PRESENCE initiative and promoted attentive bedside examination as a complement to technology. Through teaching and writing, he has helped keep the patient-physician relationship central to medical education.

Sources: med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)med.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)