Cutting for Stone

When Marion and Shiva are born as conjoined twins, they are literally connected at the tops of their heads. After their physical separation, they are still constantly together, so much so that those around them think of them as one person. Marion calls that person ShivaMarion, and for the first years of their lives, Shiva does not speak, because Marion speaks for both of them: “I became the first to breathe—senior by a few seconds. I also became spokesperson for ShivaMarion” (229). ShivaMarion is seen as a single entity, both by their family and out in public. At the Merkato, for instance, they are a spectacle, “as if ShivaMarion was a lion in the cages at Sidist Kilo” (230). Everything that they own is part of a matched pair. They walk with their arms around each other, stepping in sync, and “seated, we shared a chair, seeing no sense in occupying two” (230). They act and are treated as one entity—a fact Verghese uses to explore the nature of identity, particularly as it shifts over time.

Indeed, Marion and Shiva soon begin to separate as they develop their own interests. Shiva pulls away first when he becomes interested in dance, and Marion sees him as a traitor.