An orphan leaves Dark Ages London, taking a dangerous journey and posing
as a Jew to study medicine in Persia, in "an adventurous and inspiring
tale" (Library Journal).
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 best-selling
author Noah Gordon's Dr. Robert Cole trilogy, which continues with
Shaman and concludes with Matters of Choice.