The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is a fictional masterpiece based on real-life inspiration from Verghese’s own mother, Mariam Verghese. There’s a section where Big Ammachi’s granddaughter, Mariamma, begs for a story about their ancestors, and Mariam Verghese inspired that story. In 1998, Mariam was asked by her granddaughter what it was like when she was a girl. As a response, Mariam filled 157 pages of a spiral notebook with intricate illustrations and narrated her memories of girlhood in Kerala. Abraham used these stories in his novel. It was Abraham’s personal experiences that influenced his fictional world.