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Summary: Couldn't put it down!!!
Review: I read this book 13 years ago and it still ranks with me as one of the best books I have ever read. You will feel as if you are in the locals as this book travels across continents. I found myself reading this book when ever I could find time. This would make a great motion picture.
Enjoy!! You will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: Here is a book I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. It was like living around the year 1000 and being taken on a tour around so you could see how different things were at that time. For example, I learned why the postal system in Europe uses the posthorn as its symbol. I learned where cruelty to children stems from. I learned why caravans were popular. I came to realize more fully why decent women prostituted themselves. And I learned much, much more from being carried back into that time about 1000 years ago. I wished the book just went on and on.
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Summary: Marvelous!
Review: This book is marvelous. A book describing an atribulated life of an orphan, from surviving (with 9 years old) in a dark England (and Europe) sufocated with the religious madness in those dark ages, passing by trip to Persia and... well, you'll read it! His objective is to become a physician. You'll learn to love the character. Great things will happen. In the end, when you remember what happened through the book, you will feel nostalgia... It's one of those book telling a life's story, that will keep you interested 'til the end, and make you think when you finish its reading. Recommended. Buy it! You won't regret it!
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Summary: Thoroughly engrossing! Historical Fiction fans must read.
Review: For me, Noah Gordon has created a "time machine" in The Physician. In its pages I am transported to northern europe's darkest hours. I can almost feel the misty mornings and smell the muddy roads along which a "touched" boy trods, searching for his place in a threatening world. We are offered a well developed and supported transformation from the young man's early survival years to his life-making, heart-wrenching commitment to the art of healing. Along the way, we witness many fascinating points relating the beliefs and practices of Judaism. The historical points are well-researched and well-placed.The pace of The Physician slowed just long enough for me to take a deep breath - now and then - and jump back in! The ending made sense and felt good to me. So much so that I located and purchased Mr. Gordon's other books! If they are near to The Physician's satisfying read, I'll be very happy indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: Few misunderstandings to be clarified in an excellent book
Review: "The physician" is a beautiful look into the life in those dusty old days (although just one thousand years ago, not really that far away, if you see what I mean). It is particularly looking at the life from the stand point of religious/cultural conflicts that divided the old societies, and more specifically through the eyes of a young westerner who carries a double burden of being a Christian while disguising as a Jewish student in the Moslem world. The story is taking place in Persia (Iran), and not the Arab part of the Islamic world; therefore the society is the most tolerant version of the Islamic world thanks to the Persian culture. The young English seeks to become a student of Avicena the great physician/philosopher of his time and many centuries to follow. However there is a problem.....only Moslems and Jews can go to medical school in Persia (Iran). He is left with no choice but disguising himself as a young European Jew to enter Persia and travel to Isfahan where Avicena trains new generation of physicians in a different way than anywhere else. This enables the talented writer to take the reader through a diverse experience of encounters and characters. The writer is biased by his western background, however. Throughout the story there are comments implying discriminations against Jews that sound odd to a Persian who is raised in one of the most tolerant cultures (lets not mix "cultures" with "political systems" that appear temporarily and tarnish the figure of a nation). The fact that only Moslem and Jewish Iranians would be accepted to the school speaks volumes. I am not sure (and this needs to be explored) if Armenians who are Christian and have always lived in peace in Persia were eligible too or not. My guess would be so; in other words it was the Christianity that represented the "militant" West that was not tolerated, not the religion itself (the mention of Armenians and their church in Isfahan in the book corroborates this notion). There are also occasional confusions about Avicena's Persian (Iranian) nationality which unfortunately is not uncommon; the fact that after adopting Islam as their religion and its political consequences, Persian scholars made their contribution mostly in Arabic writing (as Latin for the Christian world) for a larger exposure, and this at times causes confusion (but you wish not to a scholar like Gordon!). Also, Ala Shah (the king of Persia at the time of Avicena), belonged to the "Daylami" dynasty (not "Samanid", that was an earlier dynasty). Overall, the book is very attractive, and unique in many regards.
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Summary: I can't believe that Americans don't know Noah Gordon
Review: READ THIS BOOK - YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED! As an American living in Germany, I learned of this unbelievable American author about 5 years ago. It was at this time that his book THE PHYSICAN was recommended to me as the best book these people had ever read. I heard this so many times in various different cities from people of different ages and backgrounds. Of course they had all read it in German and were all shocked that I had never heard of Noah Gordon. Over the course of the next year I searched for the book each time I was in the US and when I finally received my copy I devoured it. My mother joined me in Germany and I recommended it - she finished all 1200 or so pages in a week and loved it too! Since it's been so long since I read THE PHYSICIAN I hesitate to comment directly on the book (also because I'm a lousy writer and would never do it justice) but I will say I have since read every other Noah Gordon book I could get. I was never disappointed - THE SHAMAN was just as magical as THE PHYSICIAN. I'm writing now because the Germans have just given me the tip that Mr. Gordon has yet another winner, I think it's called THE LAST JEW?, in any case I'll be ordering the hardback immediately. My library wouldn't be complete without it.
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Summary: The saga of a man who wanted to become a physician
Review: I have some friends who have read this book and all of them said the same thing: that since they had approached the end of the book, they coudn't read more than a page a day in order not to finish such a magnificent book so fast. With me it was different: I couldn't put it down since I started reading it. Anyway, the book narrates the story of a young man who leaves England and travels through Europe to study medicine in 11th-century Persia. He had a problem though: only muslims and jews were allowed into the university.
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Summary: Noah's gift
Review: Noah Gordon has woven a tale of a young man with a special talent for healing, and we are the lucky people who are offered this treasure. Born into squalid poverty in early 11th century London, Rob Cole's quest for medical knowledge takes him, mainly by foot, to far-off Persia - I think today's equivalent journey would be into space. Gordon has avoided the fake "olde worlde" dialogue and language anachronisms that have caught out so many other writers of historical fiction, and which bring us back into the 21st cenury with a jolt. The result is an exquisitely researched, wonderfully credible, beautifully readable, entirely involving journey of the mind, body and soul. I defy you to put it down until it falls onto your face, when your eyes close with fatigue. The best 20c (at a hospital jumble sale) I've ever spent. When your eyes have recovered, continue the journey with 'The Shaman', but I found the third book very disappointing and hackneyed after the elegance and beauty of 'The Physician' and the raw, frontier adventure of 'The Shaman'.
Rating:
Summary: A Time Piece
Review: Kudos to Mr. Gordon. He takes the reader back and shows us all the Y1K problems faced as urban sprawl meant something different than SUV's and the erosion of the ozone layer. Gordon paints a vivid picture of life in England at the turn of the last millenium. He than transports us to the mytic cities of the Near East and shows us medicine in its infancy. As a physician, I was spellbound by a history too often not taught. The lessons in religious tolerance and intolerance thrown in along the way were a bonus. A solid read for any history buff. Something all physicians can learn from. High marks for volume I of the Rob J trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT NOVEL
Review: The Physician is one of the best novel I have been read.It is wonderfull story about a boy who became a man durig his travels through middle age England and a great part of Europe and Asia.You will learn(as he did) about different religions and customs. Action is very interesting and I higly recomend this novel for reading. And, of course, there is love story which all good novels should have.(Including happyend) Unfortunatelly I have not been able to read 2 following books about Cole family,(because war in my town Sarajevo) but I will try to find them as soon as possibile. Herewith I would like to thank to readers who wrote review for Shaman and Matters of Choice
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