Atrapante, en una línea similar a "The Pillars of the Earth", incluso creo que me gustó más que ése porque me parece mejor narrado.
Sigue la historia de un campesino pobre del siglo XI que sufre mil peripecias hasta lograr viajar a Persia para estudiar medicina con el médico más famoso del mundo, Ibn Sina (Avicena).
El libro mantiene el ritmo en todo momento, por lo que la lectura engancha rápidamente y cuando me dí cuenta, ¡zas! habían pasado las 800 páginas.
El libro es autoconcluyente aunque hay 2 continuaciones, me anoto en carrera para leerlas, al igual que otros libros del autor, porque me gusta mucho cómo escribe.

Hace tiempo que tenía ganas de leerme este libro y no me ha decepcionado. De hecho, me ha enganchado capitulo a capitulo y su lectura es muy amena. La pluma de Noah Gordon y su voz son adictivas y simplemente no tengo palabras para describir lo que este libro me ha producido al leerlo.

La historia de Robert (el protagonista) muestra y enseña lo que uno puede estar dispuesto a sacrificar por cumplir un sueño, en el caso de esta novela de ser un médico y ser alumno de uno de los mejores profesores de medicina del siglo XI, Ibn Sina.

Recomiendo su lectura :D

From my participation in various Goodreads groups, I realized that many readers, like myself, enjoy historical fiction because they learn about different times and places from the novels. If that is the case, do not read this book!!

From what I know of English and Byzantine history, this book contained so many anachronisms as to make it virtually worthless from the perspective of learning any history. Maybe the information on medieval Judaism and Persian medicine was correct, but I doubt it. Among the inaccuracies I found were:

Anglo-Saxons in pre-1066 England named Robert, William, Stewart, Jonathan; Anglo-Saxons in pre-1066 England with not just last names, but middle names (almost no one even had last names unless it was a patronymic (these weren't) until hundreds of years later); the mention of merchants trading velvet - a fabric not developed until hundreds of years later; the statement that Anatolia was long overrun with Seljuk Turks about 1030, even making their way into Greece at that time, and calling Anatolia "Turkey" - in 1030 the Seljuks were still well to the east of Armenia and did not begin their incursions into Byzantine territory until about 1048, and really making their conquests starting in 1071; the book has a caravan of 300 Bactrian (two humped) camels traipsing through Greece when these were Asian camels who probably never even made it to Constantinople; the comment that the Roman emperor Constantine conquered Byzantium when it had long been a part of Roman territory - he just made it the Roman Empire's eastern capital.

I gave the book 3 stars because the writing is above average and the author knows how to tell a story. At one point, I almost put it down, but decided I was interested to see how it all ended, which does say something good about it. Still, the historical inaccuracies were so prolific as to make the book almost seem to be a fantasy.

Maravilloso viaje

No tengo mucho que decir excepto que no creo que sea para mi, o por lo menos no mi yo actual, quien sabe si en unos años más le de una segunda oportunidad.

Aguanté con optimismo toda la infancia de Rob, pensando que una vez comenzara su viaje como "medico" lo encontraría mas interesante pero lamento decir que esa es la parte que encontré más aburrida y siendo sincera, hacia el final empecé a saltarme partes porque lo único que quería es terminar con el.

A fabulous book that I bought at a discount, Until I saw an add for this book I had never heard of the author and now I want to read more. The author does a great job transporting the reader back in time to the 11th century and shows the difference between medicine and medical knowledge in England and Persia. Well drawn characters, an interesting premise and a very easy and fast read. Highly recommended.

Prompted by Ilse, my GR friend and writer of wonderful reviews, I thought I should take a few minutes to say that I enjoyed reading The Physician and am not at all surprised that she found many copies in accommodations in Nepal and India during her travels 25 years ago.
It has all the ingredients for a best seller - an attractive hero, a love story, trails and tribulations, a long journey across unfamiliar lands and cultures and a challenging quest achieved.
For four days it took precedence over my other current reading, which I know I’m going to rate much more highly because they are changing the way I see the world (Braudel) and making me stop and think (Jacobson, Levy).
Hence the three stars.
It’s good light entertainment.
Thank you, Ilse.

Everything historical fiction should be...fascinating period detail, an epic story peopled with imaginatively drawn characters that conjures up the sights and sounds of another time and other cultures. Loved it.

Nos cuenta la vida de Rob J. Cole, un joven londinense del siglo XI, perteneciente a una familia de carpinteros.Rob queda huérfano a los nueve años,con la responsabilidad de cuidar de sus hermanos menores,luego de conseguirle un hogar a éstos,emprende una vida humilde como aprendiz de cirujano barbero,desde entonces siente una gran inquietud por aprender la medicina de la época ,viajará hasta Persia, donde residen los médicos más sabios: Avicena.
Una gran historia,con grandes personajes! y muy entretenida, aunque me hubiese gustado que tuviera más información histórica acerca de la época y un lenguaje menos moderno.
Amo el genero de Ficción histórica, novelas que nos cuentan sobre individuos que han destacado en el tiempo, Si te gusta esta novela te recomiendo continuar en el siglo XI con El segundo Reino >>
Das zweite Königreich y del siglo XII con The Pillars of the Earth.

PD. No puedo esperar a que se estrene la PELÍCULA!.

La verdad, no tenía clara mi opinión sobre este libro cuando lo terminé. Si bien seguimos la historia de Rob y su objetivo de convertirse en médico, hay muchas páginas con información innecesaria y otra parte que, si bien, transmite el contexto de la época... tiene una conexión medio forzada.

Me explico. Más allá de conocer la vida de Rob, pasamos muchos capítulos con instrucciones sobre como hacer malabares, otras describiendo una carrera en Persia de un personaje que, aunque sea amigo de Rob, no es una situación que aporte a la trama, toda la trama de la guerra es demasiado extensa para el papel que acaba teniendo y toda la información histórica llega a parecer una lección de historia, alejándose del argumento y de la parte que más interesa al lector. En resumen, muchas páginas que me sobraron.

Eso sí, admirable el trabajo de investigación del autor, además de mostrar las discrepancias en temas religiosos de una forma muy clara y dejando ver que, aunque no compartas las creencias y consideres que las prácticas son tontas, hay que respetar a los demás, estableciéndose una amistad muy fuerte entre Karim, Rob y Mirdin. Y, en general, la historia principal es muy interesante y esperas lo mejor de Rob. Una pena que el final me resultara algo anticlimático.

REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXT

Honestly, I was actually and in fact totally expecting to very much enjoy Noah Gordon’s 1986 historical fiction novel The Physician and mostly because almost my entire family (including my very picky with regard to their fiction reading choices father and maternal grandfather) absolutely and utterly adored the German language translation of The Physician. And indeed, Der Medicus also and equally has a very positive general rating on Amazon Germany with only very few entirely negative reviews, and not to mention that I did peruse the first four chapters of Der Medicus at a large German bookstore when Der Medicus first appeared in German translation in 1987 and was most definitely liking what I was textually encountering (but I unfortunately did not end up purchasing Der Medicus at that time and now sadly only have easy access to Noah Gordon’s original English text, only have access to The Physician).

And well, I guess from my one star rating for The Physician and that I have also placed The Physician on my “will not be finishing” shelf, I think it definitely should be pretty much obvious and clearly demonstrated that I have not been AT ALL textually impressed with Noah Gordon as an author, with his penmanship. For while regarding the German translation, while regarding Der Medicus I do distinctly and with appreciation remember a descriptive, realistic for time and place and as such also my reading interest retaining writing style, with the original, with The Physician, sorry, but Noah Gordon’s stylistics and modes of literary expression almost immediately started majorly boring and frustratingly annoying me, with Gordon’s printed words feeling unorganised, unrealistic and truly tedious for me to read to such an intense and massive extent that I lost absolutely ALL of my perusal patience after about fifty or so pages and decided to not only quit but to also donate my personal copy of The Physician to the Salvation Army. So while I do sometime in the hopefully not so distant future plan on both reading and posting a likely rather generally positive enough review for Der Medicus, for Noah Gordon’s original English language text, for The Physician, I really cannot and will not give more than one star (for an in my humble opinion totally substandard and narrationally really quite horrible writing style that only manages to frustrate and has absolutely and with no feelings of guilt whatsoever made me abandon The Physician really early on).

El médico es una novela atestada de información histórica