And the Oprah’s Book Club Bump Goes to … Abraham Verghese and UCSB Arts & Lectures!

‘Covenant of Water’ Author Gets Surprise Guest at Arlington Appearance in Santa Barbara

Oprah Winfrey introduces one of her Oprah's Book Club authors, Abraham Verghese ('Covenant of Water') at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara on February 21, 2024. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Author Abraham Verghese got a second Oprah’s Book Club bump last night when Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance at the Arlington Theatre to introduce him to the sold-out UCSB Arts & Lectures crowd that had gathered to hear the Covenant of Water author in discussion with Pico Iyer.

Verghese’s initial “Oprah bump” came in May 2023, when she gave her personal thumbs-up to his second novel, an epic tale of three generations, from 1900 to 1977, which takes place primarily in a Christian community in Kerala, India, and the surrounding areas. “The book is indeed a masterpiece,” said Winfrey, as she recounted her initial telephone call with Verghese after reading it and assuring him multiple times that “yes, this really is Oprah.”

At the time she made that phone call, shared Winfrey, “I had not read any of his other books. I knew nothing of his incredible accomplishments as a New York Times best-selling author of three other books or that he was an infectious disease physician, a professor and vice chair of the theory and practice of medicine at Stanford University, a TED Talk sensation. I didn’t know any of this. I just had finished reading the galley and had been left in complete awe off of the experience of traveling through India going to Kerala and coming to pick up Big Ammachi and Philipose and Digby and Mariamma and Uplift Master and Shamuel, all of them as real people that I felt connection to.”.

Since that time, the two have become friendly and together they did a six-part, six-hour podcast series about the book. “He is a masterful storyteller, but even more profoundly, he is an extraordinary man,” said Winfrey.

Admittedly, Oprah is a tough act to follow, but interviewer Iyer handled it with his typical grace and humor, opening with, “I think this is going to be the dessert course.”

Author Abraham Verghese, left, in conversation with Pico Iyer. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance to introduce author Abraham Verghese at the Arlington on February 21, 2024. | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

“This feels like a dream, and I sure hope I don’t wake up,” said Verghese, with a smile and nod to Winfrey, who had seated herself in the front row. The two men then proceeded with an interesting, far-reaching conversation covering Verghese’s creation of the book — which he worked on for well over a decade — his work as a teacher and physician at Stanford, and some of his family background and views on the world.

As an Ethiopian-born Indian-American medical doctor, Verghese has an interesting background to help inspire his writing. His first novel, Cutting for Stone, was set in Ethiopia. As Iyer said, “Place is almost like a character in your books.”

“I have lived the longest part of my life in America,” said Verghese. “I came as part of an annual influx of foreign medical graduates. We wouldn’t be able to staff the inner-city hospitals [in the U.S.] without that group of physicians,” he added, which got a big round of applause.

“My biggest decision in starting a novel is where,” said Verghese.

Iyer also asked about detailed death scenes in Covenant of Water (of which there are many). “Life is a terminal condition. I hope that’s not news to you guys,” said Verghese, getting a big laugh. “As far as I know, life is 100 percent fatal.”

“What does writing give you that you can’t get from your work as a physician?” asked Iyer, himself the author of 16 books, with a new title coming out in 2025. “I see my writing as my conversation with the future,” said Verghese. “I don’t play golf, so this is what I do.”