The Covenant of Water (Abraham Verghese) - An emotional roller coaster

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When you pick up a book of 700 pages that no one seems to be talking about, is not the darling of social media, few have even heard of it in your reading circles, then you are taking a big risk. And with big risks, if you get lucky, come big returns. And man, did I get lucky?

The Covenant of Water spans three generations of a family living in God's Own Country (cliche but so true). It traces the life of a little 12 year old girl who is married off to a middle aged widower with a 2 year old son and finds herself the mistress of Parambil, her new husband's estate of 500 acres. Here she learns to cook, take care of the household, of the little boy she is now mother to and gradually, as she grows a little older, the wife of this silent and strong man in all respects, who is his own quiet wordless ways, shows how she is valued and loved. It takes her a few years, but she gradually learns to ask for what she wants (like visits to the church, a Bible and a Manorama subscription!) But a shocking loss of life due to drowning forces her husband to reveal to her to the truth of why her big, strong husband is so afraid of water that he wont even take a boat (which in a place like Kerala is unthinkable) and would prefer to walk hundreds of kms to reach a place by land. This is the "condition" the family is cursed with and has lost many a life due to drowning. Water demands its price from this family and the family keeps paying from generation to generation. As Big Ammachi (what the little 12 year old grows into for all of Parambil) grows older, her family grows - there is a daughter and then a son. We meet various people who come into her life with their own idiosyncrasies and it makes for beautiful and colourful reading - Shamuel, Uplift Master, Dolly Kochamma, Odat Kochamma- characters with beautifully rendered back stories and who are important to the story in ways one understands later. People grow old, the next generation grows up and flourishes or it doesn't, but time goes on till we meet Big Ammachi's grand daughter. This young lady decides to figure out the "condition" that has haunted her family for generations and makes it her life's mission. But why did her mother, the beautiful and talented Elsie drown herself within days of her being born? Will she ever know?  

The parallel story that runs through all these years is that of Digby, the Scotsman who opts for the Indian Medical Service and leaves his home in Glasgow, all to become a surgeon - which he does become ....till be doesn't. He finds his way to Madras (now Chennai) and settles into a new city, for him a practically new world. We follow his life as he cycles down the dusty roads of Chennai, visits the temples of Mahabalipuram and finds love.... till circumstances and accidents bring him to Kerala. In this, is he running away from tragedy or running towards one - who is to say? Finally all these fates intertwine and bring them together once again showing us that everything is ordained to happen in a certain way and that there is nothing called coincidence.   

The political climate of the country, from 1900 to the mid 1970s is the backdrop to everything. From the years of the British rule, the independence movement, the partition, the young country, the political upheaval, various uprisings - all of it is important to the story. So also is the climate and landscape of Kerala. In fact Kerala is a character by itself in this book - so much of what happens happens, because it is situated here - change the geographic setting and the story fails to even take off. Add to it the medical science that is referred to often and becomes important to so much of the story. With so much going on in one book, is it a wonder it needed 715 pages to write? And oh, I cannot even begin to tell you how good the writing is. I reread parts of it - once to get the story and the second time to just to enjoy the beautiful turns of phrases and way with words - sometimes poignant, sometimes funny and at others, just breathtaking. 

Be ready for the emotional roller coaster ride that The Covenant of Water is - joy, sorrow, anger, fear and disgust - each emotion will be evoked as you journey through Big Ammachi's life.