Rob J. Cole, un joven londinense del siglo XI que pertenece a una familia de carpinteros, queda huérfano a los nueve años y con la responsabilidad de cuidar de sus cuatro hermanos menores, a quienes va encontrando hogar.

Primera entrega de la apasionante historia de Rob J. Cole, que continúa con Chamán y La doctora Cole.

Una vez solo coincide con Henry Croft, un cirujano barbero que deambula por Inglaterra montando espectáculos y dedicándose a ejercer de curandero para vender un ungüento milagroso y del que se convierte en aprendiz. Con Henry Croft comparte viaje, cartel y beneficios hasta que el maestro muere. Y es entonces cuando conoce a Benjamín Merlín, un médico judío que le alenta a superarse y hacer realidad su sueño, y que le habla del más eminente médico de la remota Persia: Ibn Sina o Avicena. Rob, llevado por su pasión por sanar y aliviar el dolor, llega a Oriente donde se hará pasar por judío y adoptará el nombre de Jesse ben Benjamín, para no destacar como europeo y poder hacer realidad su sueño: estudiar medicina en la madraza de Ispahán.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

An orphan leaves Dark Ages London to study medicine in Persia in this rich and vivid historical novel from a New York Times-bestselling author (The New York Times).

A child holds the hand of his dying mother and is terrified, aware something is taking her. 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.

The Physician is the first book in New York Times-bestselling author Noah Gordon's Dr. Robert Cole trilogy, which continues with Shaman and concludes with Matters of Choice.

España. Siglo XV. Cuando Yonah es separado de los únicos miembros de su familia que quedan con vida, se ve forzado a abandonar su hogar en búsqueda de un nuevo lugar donde poder establecerse sin tener que renunciar a sus creencias.

El viaje iniciático de un judío en la España de la Inquisición.

Contrario a la conversión e involucrado además en la investigación del robo de reliquias, inicia un largo periplo por la España de la Inquisición, durante el cual deberá recurrir a su ingenio para salvaguardar su secreto. Los cambios continuos de identidad y de oficio serán duros de encajar, pero las dificultades no harán sino forjar su personalidad y reafirmar sus orígenes. Desde sus días de pobreza y soledad hasta sus últimos años como reputado médico, seguimos la vida de este extraordinario personaje y de un no menos interesante periodo histórico, en el que las traiciones e intrigas estaban a la orden del día.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain.

Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew.

On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop, he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving.

In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain.

Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew.

On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving.

New York Times-bestselling author: In 19th-century Spain, the son of a vineyard owner builds a life for himself, but a dangerous plot threatens it all . . .

Josep Alvarez is a young man in the tiny grape-growing village of Santa Eulália, in northern Spain, where his father grows black grapes that are turned into cheap vinegar. Joseph loves the agricultural life, but he is the second son, and his father's vineyard will be inherited by his brother Donat, the firstborn. Josep needs to keep his hands in the soil. He yearns for a job growing grapes and for an opportunity to marry Teresa Gallego.

In Madrid, an assassination plot, conceived against the political leader of Spain by men of wealth and power, creates a storm of intrigue that sucks into its vortex a group of innocent young farm workers in Santa Eulália. How Josep's life is changed drastically by these events, and how, ironically, they gradually turn him into an inspired vintner with an evolving vision of life, is the fascinating story of The Winemaker.

La doctora Cole es una mujer de nuestro tiempo. Tiene cuarenta años y su vida está determinada por un continuo conflicto de intereses.

Esta moderna novela es la última entrega de la trilogía de la familia Cole, conformada además por El médico y Chamán.

Las exigencias del matrimonio frente a la ambición profesional, los avances científicos frente a la conciencia social; la vida urbana frente al aprecio por los valores rurales, así como la lucha por preservar la vida frente al convencimiento del poder de decisión de una mujer.

Fiel a la tradición familiar, que ha hecho de la medicina un sacerdocio, la doctora R.J. Cole decide dejar Boston para volver al campo y trabajar como médico rural. Allí, en las colinas de Massachusetts, podrá recobrar ese don de adivinación tan peculiar que ya distinguió a sus antepasados y volverá a descubrir aquellos placeres que la gran ciudad le había arrebatado.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

With Choices, Noah Gordon brings to a close his great trilogy spanning the generations of the Cole medical dynasty. Beginning with the legendary 11th-century doctor Robert J. Cole, each eldest son has borne the same name and middle initial, and some have possessed the uncanny sixth sense known as The Gift--the terrible and instinctive knowledge that someone is about to die.

In Choices, it emerges again in the present, but this time in a daughter, Roberta Jeanne d'Arc Cole, known as R.J. She defies her beloved father when she chooses to study law rather than medicine, yet destiny is to overtake her when she realizes that she has inherited The Gift. As she holds the hands of a sick man, R.J. feels a dreadful certainty that he is going to die. Tragically, he is her own lover. Struggling with her grief, R.J. knows she must bow to the inevitable and become a physician. But her life changes when she moves to a small-town practice and is faced with a terrible dilemma.

He was a young American rabbi. She was his beautiful Christian wife. Together they tried to forge a life . . .

This big, ambitious novel comes as close to matters of faith and life as any book that has appeared. . . . Excellent.--New York Post

First and foremost, Michael Kind was a man--a courageous man with strong ideals and feelings, a family man devoted to his two children, a passionate man deeply in love with his wife Leslie. He'd already become a rabbi when he met Leslie, a minister's daughter. She fell in love with Michael and converted to Judaism to marry him.

This is their story, a sweeping drama of love and identity, of compassion and cruelty, a searing tale of one man and one woman who must learn to cope with the complications of an unorthodox life in a world that will not accept them, in a world where rabbis and non-Jews do not fall in love--let alone marry . . .

A human and enlightening portrait of a rabbi as a man, called upon constantly to be something more than a man: of a rabbi as a husband and father with the weakness and problems of other men . . . A rewarding reading experience.--Los Angeles Times

From the author of The Physician and Shaman now comes this story of a young man-the grapes he grows, the wine he fashions, the women he loves, and his struggle against an evil that seeks to destroy him. Already an international bestseller. Josep Alvarez is a young man in the tiny grape-growing village of Santa Eulalia, in northern Spain, where his father grows black grapes that are turned into cheap vinegar. Joseph loves the agricultural life, but he is the second son, and his father's vineyard will be inherited by his brother Donat, the firstborn. Josep needs to keep his hands in the soil. He yearns for a job growing grapes and for an opportunity to marry Teresa Gallego. In Madrid, an assassination plot, conceived against the political leader of Spain by men of wealth and power, creates a storm of intrigue that sucks into its vortex a group of innocent young farm workers in Santa Eulalia. How Josep's life is changed drastically by these events, and how, ironically, they gradually turn him into an inspired vintner with an evolving vision of life, is the fascinating story of The Winemaker. Conciseness is Gordon's greatest skill. He unfolds a plot branching out far, until a panoramic view of a world past emerges-as vivid as the great realistical novels of the 19th century. -Welt am Sonntag (Germany) So suspenseful that you cannot put it down. -Leipziger Volkszeitung (Germany) Gordon's healthy obsession with research, his ability to create extremely realistic characters, and that innate literary talent of his for which there's no explanation are certain to make this book another best seller. -Elle Magazine (Spain) A wonderful book. Enjoy it with a good bottle of wine. -Bucher (Germany) Noah Gordon has had outstanding international success. The Physician, soon to be a motion picture, has been called a modern classic, and booksellers at the Madrid Book Fair voted it one of the 10 best-loved books of all time. Shaman was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical fiction. Both of these books, and five of the author's other novels-The Rabbi, The Death Committee, The Jerusalem Diamond, Matters of Choice, and The Winemaker-are published in digital formats by Barcelona eBooks and Open Road Integrated Media. Gordon's novel, The Last Jew, will also be published digitally in the near future. He lives outside of Boston with his wife, Lorraine Gordon.