Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water (2023) is ambitiously set over the course of seventy-seven years, from 1900 to 1977. The novel is set in Kerala, in the south of India, and follows three generations of the same family. However, a tragedy befalls each generation: one member of each generation dies in a drowning incident.
Primarily, the novel focuses on a twelve-year-old girl in that family. After the death of her father in one of those tragic drowning events, that young girl is sent away by her family to marry a 40-year-old man—a man whom she has no interest in or compatibility with, in large part due to their age difference. That is not the only challenge she faces in her life; she must contend with the inevitability of her becoming the patriarch of her family. And it is up to her to break their curse.
The Covenant of Water earned high praise from critics, readers, and celebrities alike. Oprah Winfrey, who is known for creating bestsellers through her "Oprah's Book Club" program, included Verghese's novel in that program, turning it into a New York Times bestseller. In a review, she called the book "One of the best books I've read in my entire life. It's epic. It's transportive." Likewise, The New York Times called it "grand, spectacular, sweeping and utterly absorbing."
