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Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, THE COVENANT OF WATER is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning --- and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a 12-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her 40-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl --- and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi --- will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph, as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

Week of May 5, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of May 5th include THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese, a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith and medicine that follows three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret; Lucy Foley's THE MIDNIGHT FEAST, a deliciously twisty locked-room mystery set at a luxe coastal retreat; I WILL RUIN YOU, an intriguing psychological thriller from Linwood Barclay, in which a teacher’s act of heroism inadvertently makes him the target of a dangerous blackmailer; Ann Hood's THE STOLEN CHILD, a moving, page-turning novel about   an unlikely duo venturing through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate; and THE YEAR OF LIVING CONSTITUTIONALLY, which chronicles A.J. Jacobs'  hilarious adventures in attempting to follow the original meaning of the Constitution, as he searches for answers to one of the most pressing issues of our time: How should we interpret America’s foundational document?