April 7, 2011 In March, the NPR book club read Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone, and today Verghese answers questions posted by the audience on the NPR Books Facebook page. Highlights from the interview include Verghese’s take on the origin of the story (“It all began with this image of a beautiful South Indian nun giving birth in a mission hospital in Africa”), the value of a good editor (“You want someone who’s objective to reinforce the parts that are good, that you might not even recognize are good, and to take away those parts that you are very fond of but are tiresome to the reader”), and why being a doctor and being a novelist are not so different (“When I see a patient, I take a history, and what is a history but a story?”). Listen to the full Q&A here. Read Chapter 16‘s interview with Verghese here.
For more updates on Tennessee authors, please visit Chapter 16‘s News & Notes page, here.
