Born and brought up of Indian parents in Ethiopia, Abraham Verghese qualified as a doctor in Madras and is currently professor of medicine at Stanford University, California. He is the author of My Own Country, an NBCC finalist made into a film directed by Mira Nair and the bestselling novel,
Cutting for Stone.When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unravelling, relocates to Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at a county hospital.
There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from a drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security, in the sport they love and in each other. But when the dark beast that is David's addiction emerges once again, almost everything Verghese has come to trust and believe in is threatened.
Compassionate and moving, The Tennis Player is an unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live and how they survive.
Verghese is a fine writer, lyrical and controlled, and he captures the attachment between two men - its motives, its allure - with both precision and charm... Wise and compassionateA brave and heart-baring storyHeartbreaking... Indelible and haunting... An elegy to friendship found and an ode to a good friend lost
