The physician ebook

Orphaned and given to an itinerant barber-surgeon, Rob Cole becomes a fast-talking swindler, peddling a worthless medicine. But as he matures, his strange gift—an acute sensitivity to impending death—never leaves him, and he yearns to become a healer. Arab madrassas are the only authentic medical schools, and he makes his perilous way to Persia. Christians are barred from Muslim schools, but claiming he is a Jew, he studies under the world's most renowned physician, Avicenna.

How the woman who is his great love struggles against her only rival—medicine—makes a riveting modern classic. Robert Cole trilogy, which continues with Shaman and concludes with Matters of Choice. Media The Physician. Save Not today. Format ebook. Series Cole. Author Noah Gordon. Publisher Barcelona Digital Editions. I'll never come to grips with the decision of the writer, Noah Gordon, to extend the chapters, to outstay his welcome.

I freely admit to skipping a couple of chapters. That was a thing I didn't want to do, but the relevant chapters were too abysmal. I'll never read another book by said author. I ought to be thankful that someone can infuse some life, urgency, pathos, and interest in such a big book, but I think the decision to end the book the way it did was treacherous.

I happen to think that the author and the reader don't owe each other anything, but instinctively I find it logically incorrect. The writer owes us something. What that something is, is not clear.

Gordon made me hate the entire book by proxy of him exhausting his goodwill with boring and suicidal writing. The one good thing the book did was awaken me to the possibility of reading non fiction by writers like Karen Armstrong. That is the only tangible thing left to me.

The rest of my reading experience has been wasted. I won't return to this storyteller, ever. Em Lost In Books. It was time well spent. TEST 2 I thought perhaps the easiest way to synthesize my feelings towards this book was to answer the following 5 questions: When did the story take place : The first half of the eleventh century. Who were the central characters : Rob J Cole, his friends and employers and later his wife Mary Cullen.

Where did it take place : England, Scotland, a trip across Europe to Isfahan, Perisa and even a short episode in India! What was the point of the book : I believe the book was written to inform readers in an engaging manner about the time period and how it really would have felt to live then and in these specific places. The book does this well. You do learn what all aspects of life were like.

You get the details concerning food, clothing, hardships and joys, both pagan and religious Christian, Jewish and Muslim beliefs and how medical problems were viewed, treated and looked upon by various groups. How was the book written :: OK, here is the problem!

It was didactic. There were so many details that you were swamped. A chapter was spent on how one can learn to juggle Yes, it was actually quite revealing, but only to a point. It went on too long. This can be said in relation to many, many points. You learn how to correctly place phylacteries according to the Jewish faith, how to prepare kosher food, how to make the the medicines then available Parts, for example how the school in Isfahan, Persia was organized, were very interesting.

Probably different parts will appeal to different readers, but to no one will ALL of it be interesting. Let me repeat, it was very didactic, to a fault! The language was clear and informative, but that was it - no sparkle what so ever!!!! I guess that is my biggest complaint. It felt like you were reading YA literature, even though some of the episodes were quite rough.

Always you felt like it was trying to teach the readers. The writing was simplistic. Only very, very rarely did it encourage the reader to pose philosophical questions. It just presented the facts. By the end of the book I was finally engaged in the characters and had to find out how things would end.

However for the majority I was slugging through the pages. Rarely did I laugh. I cannot remember in fact if I ever laughed I will not be reading another book by this author. There are better books out there that BOTH inform and capture my imagination. My head tells me the book deserves more stars, but I am sticking with my gut feelings.

Most of the time was thinking this book is OK. That is how I felt, not how I was thinking. The point of this review is to try and figure out for myself and perhaps others why I felt the way I did. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Show full review. Aitor Castrillo. Author 1 book followers. Millones de lectores satisfechos en todo el mundo y un libro que no te puedes perder. Noah Gordon is my new favorite author. Both were phenomenal. The Physician is long, but I read through it quickly.

I could hardly put it down! The novel is set in the middle of the eleventh century. Gordon transports readers to another time, setting an ambience that feels authentic to the time period. The novel covers a wide span of geography, beginning in London, taking the reader throughout England and ultimately across Europe through Constantinople to Persia, then India, and back to London and ultimately to Scotland. The main character, Rob J.

Cole, is orphaned in London and taken in by "Barber", a Barber surgeon, which is a doctor of sorts for the lowest classes. He struggles in his new role as a Barber surgeon he has a hard time mastering juggling, which is vital to draw crowds but eventually he becomes obsessed with the idea of healing people after he meets a Jewish Physician who can perform cataract surgery.

After Barber dies, Rob J. The complication is that the Catholic Church prohibits Christians from studying in "heathen" institutions, so Rob J. Eventually Rob J. This novel is not only entertaining, but also makes the reader think.

It raises many issues of religion and science and the relationship between the two. The reader also develops a strong sense of the fragility of life in this time period, of the difficulty of travel, of how much our world has progressed in years.

Also, unlike most novels of this period, it gives a sense of the role of Jews in the Middle Ages. The Jewish system of travel is fascinating. It is the story of the British orphan Rob. J from the 11th century who became a barber-surgeon, who dreamt to study medicine under Avicenna supervision. This was a condemned matter and a crime punished by death, at times when heretics were burnt. He disguised as a Jew to manage the matter. It seemed nobody like that but the Jew; the Jew was the only one who seemed loving to his family, enlightened, peaceful, high-minded, while the Muslim was the lewd and wild.

You wonder how such people made a civilization, medicine and maristan? Well, it seemed to Rob that it was not more than imitating the Greeks.