Cuando decidí leer el libro Chaman, el segundo libro de la trilogía de la familia Cole me imaginaba una secuela en donde continuaba en el siglo XI y continuaba la historia tal vez con los hijos del Dr Cole establecidos en Escocia; mi sorpresa es que la historia brinca hasta el siglo XIX con un descendiente del Dr Cole llamado también Robert J. Cole que llega de Escocia a los Estados Unidos; el libro abarca tanto la vida del Dr proveniente de Escocia como posteriormente de su hijo que a pesar de las adversidades que le presenta la vida consigue su sueño de ser Dr. La novela se lleva a cabo en una etapa histórica en Estados Unidos y detalla varios acontecimientos como la colonización de las partes centrales del país, el ataque que sufrieron los nativos por parte de los colonizadores y la Guerra de Secesión.

Lo leí hace mucho tiempo. Lo recuerdo como uno de los mejores libros que he leído

Cada vez me gusta más esta trilogía. Anciosa por saber qué sorpresa me depara el último

Patiko istorinės detalės. Galbūt tai nėra stiprus istorinis romanas, bet mano žinios apie JAV pilietinį karą kuklios, tad visai užteko knygoje esančių trupinių.

This is the second book of a trilogy about the Cole family. One thing that's unusual is that the main characters in this book are several generations removed from Rob J. in the first book of the series, "The Physician". I really love how this author writes. He pretty much ropes you in within the first couple of pages of the book and just never lets you go. And it's not that there is lots of action in this book to interest the reader. But the author makes you care about the characters from the start. It is obvious that the author has done his research. He knows how medicine was practiced in the 19th century, what the political climate was before, during and after the Civil War. He also has done research on how the Native American people were treated back then, and it's not a pretty picture.
This book features 2 of the Cole family members. Rob J. who has immigrated to the United States from Scotland, and his son, also named Rob J. , but who acquires the nickname of Shaman. The story starts with grownup Shaman, and then switches seamlessly to Shaman's father, Rob J. who is a physician with the gift of being able to feel the life essence of his patients by holding their hands. This is an ability that has been passed down (genetically?) through the family, occasionally missing a generation. So much of the book is about the older Rob J and how he ends up settling in Illinois and his life there as a doctor. He marries a widow with a little boy and then Shaman comes along. Shaman comes down with scarlet fever and ends up losing his hearing. It was pretty interesting to see how they made him stop all sign language(taught to him by an Indian shaman)so that he would be forced to speak in order to be able to communicate with people other than his family. Although I have my doubts that a deaf person would have actually been able to become a doctor back then, I still enjoyed how the author described the different ways that doctors practiced medicine and how so many people died just because of unclean habits by doctors.
This was a pretty lengthy book, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

No tan mal, ni tan bien. Empecé con bastante entusiasmo porque me fascinó el contexto histórico, la guerra de secesión de EEUU, pero en general se me ha hecho largo. Para mi gusto le sobran por lo menos la mitad de páginas. La historia no está mal, es casi biográfica, en general entretenida (y casi siempre dramática) pero muchas veces se hace lenta y es fácil perder el interés. Me pareció bastante más floja que El Médico.

Iespaidīgs laikmeta tēlojums - 19. gadsimta Amerika. Higiēnas u.c. atklājumi medicīnā, lauku ārsta ikdiena. Pilsoņu karš, balto attiecības ar sauku indiāņiem un mīlestība.

This was a wonderful book to read. Two amaizing and unforgetable characters, descendant from that first Rob J. Cole we meet at The Physician, shared his same name and the passion for medicine. They both follow they heart and believes. Robert J. Cole (father) is forced to leave his natal Scotland and travel to the new world for political reassons, there he travels to Boston fist and then to the west, where he get in touch with a native american tribe...
And then there was Chaman (Robert Jefferson Cole, the son)who admired his father and wanted to become a doctor, just like him, also sharing this odd gift.... The practice of Medicine is not so obscure anymore, not like it was when the first Robert decided to became a doctor. The problem is, no medical university with prestige would accept a deaf student. But Chaman wont accept "no" for answer.
In the middle of all this, we also follow the story of the Great civil war in the USA, where friends and sometimes family membes took part in opposite borders, and in the middle of the battle, we follow the needs and limitation doctors were force to face in order to safe human lifes.
This book could really make the big screen.

Like the first book in this trilogy I struggled between a four and five star rating. I finally decided on four, only giving points off,again, for a little bit of unbelievable situations. That being said, I highly recommend this book as well. This book continues with the family in The Physician but many centuries later. This is set before and after the Civil War. Robert Cole struggles with his conscience as well as his love on a woman who is in many ways his opposite. For example, he is agnostic leaning towards atheist while she is devout. As with the previous book, I believe that this is well researched and the story is fascinating. I truly don't understand why this author has been largely overlooked in the USA. If you like historic fiction, this is a must read.

This was really, really good! I liked the first one, called The Physician, but this was totally different. Same kind of story, okay, so maybe not 'totally' different, but had a different feel to it, because this takes place here in the states in the 1830s-60s. Lately this is a favorite time period of mine to read about. Only a few years ago, I would have thought a book like this would be boring. There certainly isn't much action or thrills. This is merely a historical drama, a coming of age, a story about how life on the frontier came about, and another lesson on how terrible us white folk can be towards others. In this case, the Native Americans.

But there wasn't so much of the horrors in this book, like when I read John Jakes' Love and War.

I enjoyed this book differently than everything else I read, because it's nice to take a break from the 'bad things happen to good people' trope. Shaman is a story about good people, and how good people interact with other good people and build a society. How a little boy born deaf can integrate into normal schooling and get along with other children and become successful in life. It's a story about overcoming odds, and challenges. About how you reap the rewards of working your ass off.

Bravo, Noah Gordon, you created another feel-good story, which I enjoyed about as much as the first in the series. However, I don't think I'll be reading the next one... Matters of Choice. I'm good leaving off here.

800 years passed. A distant descendant of Robe Cole (who had passed down the generations his medical talent and a lancet that used to belong to Avicenna) has to flee Britain due to his involvement in the Scotch nationalist movement. After various trials and tribulations in Boston, he settles at the Western border of the nascent United State, where he saves lives, including the woman he would marry, and with whom he would have a mute son nicknamed Shaman, who will pick up the Coles’ torch. The book, as many others, appears more timely now than 25 years ago when it was written. The political background (or, in this book, it is, maybe, the foreground) is the first violent bout of xenophobia, of those that periodically shake our country. In the mid-18-century the object were Irish-Catholic, who were, obviously, poised to destroy the Anglo-Saxon work ethics and Protestant moral, pay allegiance to Pope and not to the U.S. and would have never change their disgusting customs in generations. A good fraction of them were criminals and rapists, according to notorious “Know-Nothings” and the only way to save the fledgling American democracy was to deport them all once and forever. So, the Coles, even though not being political, got sucked into American political life, siding with Native Americans, abolitionists, Catholics, the North (as the time progresses into the Civil War), and through Shaman’s and his father’s eyes we see arguably the most turbulent time in the history of our country.

The saga continues

The author weaves together medical history, history of the period and the Cole family's life story beautifully.
I'm looking forward to reading the third book.