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I almost walked away. I was intimidated by the size of this book. 715 pages. I often wonder why an author feels they need this many pages to tell a story.

But…It was a library book, and I had waited months for it.

And…It was the talk because it was Oprah’s 2023 Book Club pick.

And…I don’t typically pick a book because she picked it. Just sayin�.

But…It was time to just�

Read.

At first, I was disturbed as I read about a 12-year-old being led off to marry a 40-year-old in the year 1900 on India’s Malabar Coast.

But…As I watched the unfolding of that relationship and family, I came to recognize how the world worked at that time. How he honored his wife until she came of age, how the relationship grew in love, and then what the story was truly meant to be about � this “condition� feared and how it would rock the family in such a devastating way.

And then…Another story emerged.

About a fellow named Digby.

A new timeline.

What?

Why confuse the reader?

And then…Back in time to our original story of our young girl, now grown, widowed, managing. They lovingly called her, Big Ammachi.

Would her story and Digby’s intersect?

The story is told in such a grand, spectacular, sweeping and utterly absorbing way, I found myself mesmerized. I kept turning pages, and surprised at how quickly the pages were melting away.

And yet…There were still so many more to read.

Why 715 pages?

Is it possible to still tell this story with less pages?

The book may have begun in 1900, with that 12-year-old girl preparing for her unwanted arranged marriage.

It ends in 1977, when that girl’s physician granddaughter arrives at a shocking discovery.

The family are Indian Christians, descendants of those first converted by St. Thomas in the first century A.D. They have led tough but often joyful lives, and they did make it in the world, despite the challenges.

To provide a plot synopsis would spoil the fun.

Let’s just say that this family loves and suffers in a variety of ways.

This book felt like reading a fairy tale � a good fable.

In reading the author’s acknowledgements at the end, he shares that it began with a notebook that Verghese’s mother wrote for an inquisitive granddaughter.

But mostly…It is an epic love letter to a country this author loves, that we can see and feel� to characters he has created that we can appreciate�

And…To a history he has imagined, rich in culture, and detail, and personal memories gathered and researched, that we as readers get to explore through those many, many pages.