Book Group: The Covenant of Water

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Program Type:

Online/Virtual, Literature

Program Description

Event Details

Join us for the Pacific Beach Library's monthly book discussion!  Our group meets in a hybrid format, so you can choose whether you'd prefer to join us in-person in the PB Library's Community Room or virtually (please send an email to cwainwright@sandiego.gov for this year's Zoom login info).  December's selection is The Covenant of Water  by Abraham Verghese.

Description: 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 twelve-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 forty-year-old husband for the first time. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today.

If you'd like to check out a print copy of the book, they are available 1 month before each discussion at the Pacific Beach Library's Circulation Desk.  Please call 858-581-9934 x0 before coming to pick it up so that staff may confirm availability.

 

Book Discussion Calendar

  • March 14: Switchboard Soldiers: A Novel of the Heroic Women Who Served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps During World War I  by Jennifer Chiaverini
  • April 11: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II  by Sonia Purnell
  • May 9: Mecca  by Susan Straight
  • June 13: Searching for Home: An Immigrant's Journey from Ukraine to the USA  by Judythe Roberts
  • July 11: Salt: A World History  by Mark Kurlansky
  • August 8: The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah
  • September 12: Trust  by Hernan Diaz
  • October 10: Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations  by William McRaven
  • November 14: One Book, One San Diego selection (to be announced)
  • December 12: The Covenant of Water  by Abraham Verghese
  • January 9, 2025: Select titles to discuss in 2025
  • February 13, 2025: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store  by James McBride

Accessibility

Need disability-related modifications or accommodations? Information and program content can be made available in alternative formats upon request by emailing JFRogers@sandiego.gov.