The Physician - Noah Gordon

[goodreads]

Title: The Physician
Author: Noah Gordon
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 720
Date read: July, 2010

In the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick - and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing - a gift that urged him on to become a doctor. So all consuming was his dream, that he made the perilous, unheard-of journey to Persia, to its Arab universities where he would undertake a transformation that would shape his destiny forever.

I think this is the 5th or 6th time I read this, and I enjoy it every bit as much as on my first read-through. It's a long book, but there's a reason for the length, as it allows the author (and the reader!) to dwell on the atmosphere of the different places Cole visits, on the things he learn and on the people he meet. Not that it's slow-moving - quite the contrary, I have a very hard time putting it down once I've started it.

I don't know much about England or Persia in the 11th century, so I have no idea how accurate the descriptions are, but they fascinate me nonetheless, and I love reading about the life of a physician of that era.

It's one of those rare books that draw me in completely, and where I have a very hard time letting it go even after I've turned the last page.