Never Swim Alone

 Mariamma is the main character in The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese. Mariamma is also the name of the granddaughter, who finishes the story.  It begins with a twelve year old Mariamma's marriage to a 40 year old man.  His wife has died and he has a toddler son.  At first, he doesn't want a twelve year old bride, but his sister talks him into marrying her.  

So the story begins.  Mariamma eventually becomes the matriarch of the family.  This family has a thing with water, hence the title, The Covenant of Water.  For some unknown reason, the family is cursed with not knowing how to swim and too many members of the family drown.

Two of Mariamma's children drown.  Another son, Philipose actually love the water, but for some reason, can't seem to float and swim.  Philipose grows to adulthood and goes off to college.  It is there, that he finds out that he's deaf.  He has been lip reading all his life.  He is sent home from college and that would be a devastating failure, except that he meets his future wife, on the train home.

Another story is in the novel.  Digby is a Scottish doctor who comes to India to learn and perfect his skill.  Unfortunately, he's involved in a star-crossed romance.  His beloved is burned to death and his hands are badly burned so much that his dreams of becoming a surgeon are thwarted.  He ends up on a leper colony.

Philipose and is wife, Elsie, have a happy household until their son Nivan dies, impaled on a tree branch.  She blames her husband, Philipose for not completely cutting down the tree that he promised he would.  He blames her for not leaving the tree alone and causing sharp branches that remained in the half sawed off tree. He becomes an opium addict; she goes into depression.  Eventually, Elsie goes back to her childhood homestead.

The story goes on with Elsie giving birth to the granddaughter, Mariamma.  This Mariamma goes on to become a doctor.  She and Digby meet when she interns in the leper colony.  The story concludes by tying up all the characters, that have floated, more or less, in the water.  

I would have loved the story, were it not for Digby and little Mariamma saying that they didn't believe in God.  My jaw hit the floor when I read that.  What!!! don't they have eyes that see???  Everything that happened to the people in this family are tied together in overlapping waves.  They reinforce and build upon one another.  The end of Chapter one finishes with the mother of twelve year old Mariamma giving her advice:

The same God who watched over you here will be with you there, molay.  He promises us this in the Gospels. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.