Prairie Lights, Grove Press, and the Iowa City Public Library welcome Abraham Verghese back to Iowa City to read from his latest novel, The Covenant of Water. Prairie Lights will have copies of his work for sale at the event. Seating is limited, doors are at 6 p.m.

Set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, The Covenant of Water follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning. At the turn of the century, a young girl, 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, 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.

Abraham Verghese, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is the recipient of a National Humanities Medal. He lives and practices medicine in Stanford, California where he is the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His previous novel, Cutting for Stone, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years; his novel My Own Country was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and The Tennis Partner was a New York Times Notable Book.