The Covenant of Water

Abraham Verghese First published 2023

About this book

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, three generations of a Christian family in Kerala, South India, suffer a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning. As the novel opens, a twelve-year-old girl is sent by boat to her wedding, where she meets her husband for the first time. She joins a prosperous household and becomes known as Big Ammachi, the matriarch of an extraordinary family that will endure hardship, celebrate triumph, and witness unthinkable changes over the coming decades.

Subjects

  • drowning
  • families
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • new york times bestseller
  • nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-fiction=2023-05-21