Cutting for Stone

Shiva and Marion are seven years old, and Genet is six. When Hema and Ghosh take the twins to the market in Addis Ababa, they are a spectacle. The boys are never apart, so people treat them as if they are one person. Marion speaks for both of them, and because of this, the adults in Missing do not realize that Shiva has not spoken in two years. Around the age of four, Shiva stops speaking but shows his intelligence in other ways, from math to drawing.

At first, Hema does not believe Shiva is not speaking, and then she blames herself. She and Ghosh begin a campaign to get Shiva to speak, but Marion loses his temper and tells them that Shiva will speak when he is ready. When he runs out of the house, he sees Zemui, Colonel Mebratu’s driver. Mebratu plays bridge with Ghosh now, and Zemui is Genet’s father. He asks Marion to read him a letter from a friend, but Marion runs to sit at his mother’s desk and dreams about Thomas returning. When he goes back to the house, Hema is teaching Shiva and Genet to dance, and Marion feels the pang of their first separation. Genet suddenly appears as a girl to him, and Shiva has found another way to express himself. Marion calls him a traitor, and Shiva avoids his eyes.

In 1963, Marion, Shiva, Hema, and Ghosh are driving to town when they are forced to the side of the road by the Emperor’s entourage. When the Emperor passes, he sees Hema’s sari and greets her, thrilling them all. As he approaches the gate, an old woman throws a shoe at the car. She and others who have gathered are beaten by the police. The scene remains with Marion all his life.

One day, a dog in Missing, Koochooloo, has puppies. The adults arrange to kill them by tying them to a car’s exhaust pipe. Shiva tries to free them, while Marion stays inside, shocked. The adults take Shiva inside to care for his burned hands, and they try to soothe the boys, telling them that the dog will forget. Shiva speaks for the first time in years, asking if they would forget the twins if they were killed. He then snaps off his anklet, which he has worn since he was a baby, and says that Sister and Thomas would not have let it happen. From then on, there is more separation between Marion, who connects more with people, and Shiva, who is more attuned to animals.

Marion and Shiva are 11, Genet is 10, and it is monsoon season. They are playing blind man’s bluff when Marion discovers that he can find the others by scent. That night, while Hema reads them a story, she and Ghosh are called to attend to a member of the royal family who is in labor. Whenever they leave at night, Marion fears they will not return.

Genet comes back and asks Marion to play blind man’s bluff again. She blindfolds him and binds his hands, and when he finds her in the pantry, she is crying. He suddenly understands difficulties in her life and their relationship that he never recognized before. Genet, who is naked, removes his blindfold and kisses him.

An adult returns to the house. Marion realizes that Genet will grow up to be beautiful, that she will refuse him, and that he will keep trying. Rosina finds them and confronts Genet about being naked. When Genet responds that Rosina does the same for Zemui, Rosina says Zemui is Genet’s father. Genet says a father wouldn’t have another family, but she puts her pajamas back on, and she and Rosina leave. Shiva is there, but Marion shuts his eyes, wanting to be alone.

Marion’s relationship with Rosina changes. She is always watching him with Genet, and Genet spends time with Shiva instead. Marion tries to avoid Zemui but ends up translating his letters for him because Genet refuses to do it. One night, Mebratu announces that he is now Brigadier General Mebratu.

Ghosh sees the turmoil that Marion is going through over Genet and Shiva’s distance. He begins inviting Marion to observe him at the hospital. Marion keeps a notebook with illustrations of what he observes. Looking back, he understands that Ghosh saved him by introducing him to medicine.

As Marion gets more acquainted with medicine, he sees how Ghosh is different in the operating theater than with patients, as surgery is his true training and calling. One day, a girl comes to the hospital suffering from a fistula. She and her father are shunned by everyone on the street, but upon seeing Shiva, they seem eased. Shiva leads the girl and her father into the hospital, and Marion knows now that Shiva, too, has found his calling.

One morning, Hema tells the twins that they are not going to school. Emperor Haile Selassie is out of the country, and a group of officers has seized power, led by Mebratu. The children ask Ghosh whether Mebratu’s actions were good or bad, and he says he believes Mebratu is genuinely concerned with the Ethiopian people. The neighborhood is unnaturally quiet. When Marion ventures out, a neighbor reminds him that he is a foreigner even though he was born here, and it is not safe for him right now.

Zemui is with Mebratu at the palace, and Rosina decides to go and convince him to leave. After she leaves, soldiers come and announce that Selassie’s eldest son has taken over the government. At the appointed time, they all listen to the radio to hear his address. When he speaks, they realize that he is just a figurehead, and his words are from Mebratu. They are using the Crown Prince to attempt to transition the government peacefully.

The next day, university students parade in the streets in support of the new leadership. When Hema has to go to work, Shiva asks her not to. Instead, she brings the twins to work with her, which is unusual. They never see Hema as a doctor; when she is home, she does not talk about medicine. Marion sees how happy and at ease Shiva is with the pregnant patients. Fliers from the Christian church are dropped from the air, condemning the coup. Hema shows the twins how to ensure babies are positioned correctly in utero.