The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese – English Medium

The Covenant of Water is a sweeping, multi-generational saga set in Kerala, South India, spanning from 1900 to 1977. The story begins with a twelve-year-old girl, later known as Big Ammachi, who enters into an arranged marriage with a widower much older than herself. As matriarch of the Parambil family, she endures both heartbreak and joy, witnessing tragedies tied to a mysterious family ailment dubbed “the Condition” — in each generation at least one person drowns under strange circumstances. Alongside her story runs that of European doctors and missionaries whose lives intertwine with those of the locals through medicine, faith, and love. Through lush descriptions, historical backdrop, family secrets, and a slow unfolding medical mystery, the novel weaves together themes of love, loss, service, identity, caste, colonialism, faith, and the passage of time.