Thank you for attending last week’s “Books, Bans, Libraries, and Leadership” program, in partnership with Civicas Women’s Civic Action Network, featuring Library Foundation of Los Angeles President and CEO Stacy Lieberman. Given your attendance and interest, we’d like to invite you to our upcoming Members-Only Council Literary Series Luncheon with author Abraham Verghese, who will discuss his much-anticipated novel, The Covenant of Water, on Thursday, May 4 at the California Club. This program will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Council of the Library Foundation and its important work supporting the Los Angeles Public Library.
Abraham Verghese’s last book, the massive, word-of-mouth bestselling novel Cutting for Stone (2009), sold over 1.5 million copies in the US and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years. Now, Verghese returns with an extraordinary new novel, The Covenant of Water, that is sure to solidify his reputation as one of our foremost contemporary literary writers.
Peter Blackstock, Grove Atlantic’s Deputy Publisher and Verghese’s editor, enthuses: “Verghese’s new novel, which will come out 14 years after Cutting for Stone was published, is astonishing. The Covenant of Water is epic but with a page-turning energy, and it conjures a whole world which feels absolutely alive. Abraham writes about the body and medicine in a way that is all his own, and in this novel he tells much of the story of India’s path to modernity through a single family living in Kerala from 1900 to the 1970s, moving through joy, tragedy, love, and marriage as the country around them shifts and turns. It’s a beautiful, humbling book about family lineage and connection, and also about the unexpected ways mankind makes progress. It has a joyful, positive power without shying away from some very dark moments. Ultimately it’s a book about human persistence in difficult times — and although it’s historical in its scope it feels so pertinent to all we’re going through today.”
Verghese, the recipient of a Heinz Award and a National Humanities Medal from Obama in 2014, is a renowned Stanford physician with a reputation for his focus on healing and empathetic care. The Covenant of Water blends his deep knowledge of and enthusiasm for the medical world with his writing genius, resulting in a bold, sweeping story that reads like a riveting classic Russian novel.
The Council Literary Series is sponsored by:
