From the archives: Dr. Abraham Verghese on his novel, 'Cutting for Stone'

Abraham Verghese
Host Kerri Miller interviews author Abraham Verghese at MPR's Talking Volumes Oct. 10, 2012.
MPR Photo/Tom Campbell

In the fall of 2012, Kerri Miller finally welcomed Dr. Abraham Verghese to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater. She had wanted to talk to him for years, at last securing him for a Talking Volumes discussion about his novel, “Cutting for Stone.”

He was worth the wait. Dr. Verghese told Miller that his work as an internist at Stanford only adds to his writing sensibilities, quoting the author Dorothy Allison: “Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives."

He added, "I think I succeeded in this novel in telling a kind of truth that resonates for readers."

The conversation was shared on the radio in 2013. As we anticipate this Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas discussion with Marie Myung Ok-Lee about her novel set in northern Minnesota that follows a physician grappling with changes to rural medicine, please enjoy one of Miller’s favorite conversations of all time.

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