“Heartbreaking. . . . Indelible and haunting, [The Tennis Partner] is an elegy to friendship found, and an ode to a good friend lost.” — The Boston Globe
“Verghese is a fine writer, lyrical and controlled, and he captures the attachment between the two men--its motives, its allure--with both precision and charm. . . . Wise and compassionate.” — New York Times Book Review
“Verghese writes with such searching lucidity and is so attentive and engaging a figure that he could hold us just by describing his drives around town. . . . At its core his is a brave and heart-baring story about how even a teacher of internal medicine could not see inside the person closest to him. . . . It will speak to anyone who has looked with his heart instead of his eyes.” — Time
“Despite the poignancy of the subject matter . . . Verghese’s telling of it never gets heavy-handed. Instead, he uses his bedside voice: caring, but also slightly detached and startlingly frank.” — New York
“Poignant. . . . The metaphors that underlie tennis permeate the book and give The Tennis Partner. . . . a power that resonates well beyond its topical interest.” — Chicago Tribune
“Gripping. . . . moving. . . . Verghese shows himself to be a thoughtful and honest navigator through life. His pain . . . is impossible not to share.” — Detroit Free Press
“[Verghese] displays perfect pitch in this emotionally charged tale. . . . Readers . . . will be enthralled by his sleuthing into the human heart.” — Entertainment Weekly
“A tale of luminescent humanity. . . . It goes deeper than any book I have ever read to put its finger on the pulse of what friendship truly means. It is a book for everyone of us who has deeply loved and mourned the fragile, ever-changing nature of caring, with its inherent need to ultimately let go. A brave and honest book, The Tennis Partner, haunts and empowers with each volley.” — Denise Chavez, author of Face of an Angel
“This is a knockout book. Beautifully written, it broke my heart and made me happy all at the same time. I loved Verghese’s My Own Country and this even ups the ante—more intense, even closer to the edge.” — Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones
“With writerly grace, Verghese introduces us to the disciplines he holds sacred: tennis, internal medicine, fatherhood, male friendship. Everywhere he is a diagnostician, a teacher, a lover of physical presence. But finally as he walks the back alleys of El Paso searching for his drug-abusing colleague, we understand who Verghese is at his core, a man of honor who goes down mean streets and remains himself good enough for any world. This is an extraordinary book.” — Peter D. Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac