All posts tagged: Abraham

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Published by skeptic

Diving into a Masterful Multigenerational Epic There’s something mesmerizing about water—the way it shapes landscapes, nurtures life, and yet holds the power to destroy. In his latest novel, “The Covenant of Water,” Abraham Verghese harnesses this elemental force to craft a breathtaking saga spanning three generations of a family in Kerala, India. With the fluidity of the rivers and backwaters that crisscross his lush setting, Verghese weaves together threads of love, faith, medicine, and an inexplicable family curse that sees at least one member drown in each generation. As I turned the final page of this 700+ page opus, I felt like I’d emerged from a deep dive into another world—one shimmering with vibrant characters, pulsing with history, and rippling with profound insights into the human condition. Verghese, a physician and acclaimed author of “Cutting for Stone,” once again proves himself a master storyteller, blending meticulous research with soaring imagination to create a work that is both epic in scope and intimately human. A Covenant Forged in Water and Time The novel opens in 1900 …

‘A new find’: one of last documents Abraham Lincoln signed goes on sale | Abraham Lincoln

‘A new find’: one of last documents Abraham Lincoln signed goes on sale | Abraham Lincoln

Published by skeptic

One of the last documents ever signed by Abraham Lincoln, which for years lay undiscovered in a desk drawer, is being offered for sale, valued at $45,000. The 16th president signed the document, a treasury appointment for Allen Gangewer, an anti-slavery campaigner in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Washington DC, on 11 April 1865 – the day he made what would turn out to be his final speech. Three days later, at Ford’s Theatre in downtown Washington, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth and died the following day. “A woman from the midwest, probably in her 80s, gave us a ring and arranged to come meet with us at our office outside Philadelphia,” said Nathan Raab, president of the Raab Collection, which will sell the Gangewer document online. “And she told me this heartwarming story about her husband, how he had passed away, and in looking through his stuff, sometime later, she had found this desk that he used to work at, and inside this desk there was this Lincoln document. She didn’t know much about …

Abraham Lincoln Wasn’t Too Good for Politics

Abraham Lincoln Wasn’t Too Good for Politics

Published by skeptic

Abraham Lincoln was a politician, though people like to describe him in ways that sound more noble. Contemporaries considered him a Christlike figure who suffered and died so that his nation might live. Tolstoy called him “a saint of humanity.” Lincoln himself said he was only the “accidental instrument” of a “great cause”—but he preserved the country and took part in a social revolution because he engaged in politics. He did the work that others found dirty or beneath them. He always considered slavery wrong, but felt that immediate abolition was beyond the federal government’s constitutional power and against the wishes of too many voters. So he tried to contain slavery, with no idea how it would end, and moved forward only when political circumstances changed. “I shall adopt new views so fast as they appear to be true views,” he said shortly before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. At each step, he tried to build coalitions with people who disagreed with him. Many thought he was backward, others found him radical, and still others had …