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Noah Gordon is my new favorite author. I read The Physician after I read The Last Jew. 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. Rob J. also has a special gift, which he discovers just before his parents die - he can sense when people die. 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. decides to study in Ispahan, where the Jewish Physician studied, and learn from Abicenna, the premier physician of the time. The complication is that the Catholic Church prohibits Christians from studying in "heathen" institutions, so Rob J. must disguise himself as a Jew. Rob J. learned some Jewish ways during his travels and studies Persian and ends up passing as a Jew ignorant of the Jewish traditions. Eventually Rob J. becomes a physician only to discover that his skills are not wanted/respected in London, where he is suspected of possible witchcraft and he flees to Scotland where he can practice medicine in peace.

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 1000 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.