Cutting For Stone

From the jacket:

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel -- an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics -- their passion for the same woman -- that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him -- nearly destroying him -- Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey in to one man's remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

At 533 pages, this tome (at least my copy -- others range up to 600+ pages, with larger type) was a long read...but a very enjoyable one. Dotted with references to actual historical and political characters and events, this book is "an unforgettable story of love and betrayal and forgiveness" (Ann Packer).

Two good reviews that you might enjoy reading can be found here and here.