Dr. Abraham Verghese remembers his first reading at Kepler's Books. It was for his 1995 memoir, "My Own Country," and he expected almost no one. "I was shocked to see that there were more than 10 people there because this was my first book," he told Palo Alto Online. About 30 to 40 came.
The Nov. 16 event
Verghese will be back at Kepler's on Nov. 16 for the store's annual benefit. He'll talk with Angie Coiro, Kepler's journalist in residence, according to Kepler's Literary Foundation. The evening supports the foundation's author series and education programs and celebrates the new Kepler's Leadership Circle, a donor program for the bookstore and its events. Kepler's offers three ticket tiers, and space is limited, the event page says.
A Peninsula author
Verghese has spent two decades as a physician and professor at Stanford, where he was recruited in 2007. He told Palo Alto Online he has now lived in the Bay Area longer than anywhere else. His books include "My Own Country," about treating HIV patients in rural Tennessee, the novel "Cutting for Stone" and 2023's "The Covenant of Water," which Oprah Winfrey chose for her book club. He received the National Humanities Medal in 2015.
"I'm hoping that we have a discussion that wouldn't be the same if it took place anywhere else," he said.