"Vayas donde vayas, camino a tu lado, hijo mío"

Noah Gordon tardó mucho en escribir este pedazo de libro (de casi 900 páginas) aclarando lo mucho que tuvo que estudiar la medicina y la historia de la época pero sobretodo visitando las reservas indias y entendiendo el genocidio que provocaron los estadounidenses.
Me parece muy bonita y te destroza a partir de la página 300 y ahí es un no parar de darte puñaladas.

Ojalá no le hubiera tenido miedo al éxito y hubiera escrito cuantisimo follaron Nick Holden y Rob J. los primeros años en Holden's Crossing nunca me cansaré de repetirlo.

I liked this book very much, a historical fiction set in the american civil war, a family of doctors.

Shaman is the second book in the trilogy of Noah Gordon about the Cole Family and their narrow relationship with medicine. It's a good book that mixes adventure, epic drama, history and above all, good stories about the world of medicine. It's a novel of fluent reading that makes you wanting to continue with the third part of the trilogy, that for sure won't disappoint you!

Spanish version:
Shaman es el segundo libro de la trilogía de Noah Gordon sobre la familia Cole y su estrecha relación con la medicina. La verdad es que es un libro muy bueno que mezcla aventura, épica, historia y sobretodo buenas anécdotas del mundo de la medicina. Es una novela de lectura fluida y que te deja con ganas de continuar con la tercera parte, que por cierto no os defraudara!

Not quite as good as the Physician, but a good read nonetheless. The novel takes place in the Midwest around the Civil War and is about future generations of the original Cole family found in the first book The Physician.

Na ir kam gi Šamanas galėtų nepatikti? Tiem, kas mėgsta istoriją, čia jos gausu, o prie viso to, ir pats knygos veiksmas įdomus. Netgi galima užčiuopti ir detektyvinę liniją. Tikrai viena tų knygų, kurią pasiimi į rankas ir nebenori atsitrukti visus 600psl

I really enjoyed this book and the story that is woven around this family. I wish there was more of the in between stuff. I want to know more about the first Rob J and his life in Scotland instead of just jumping ahead to the next story and the same for the time jump between book 2 and 3. I wish there was more of those stories before the new books started.

2,5

There's something weird about Gordon's novels, they sit on the shelf, looking hefty and imposing. It takes me forever to start one, but once I do, I steam through, luxuriating in every page.

I loved The Physician with a passion, and this is another great book by the same author. At times events seem similar to those in the first book, but this novel holds its own as well. I found the small moments of humor very good indeed, and also loved the pioneer elements, as that's one of my favorite things to read about.

The scope of this novel is less than The Physician, but then, it doesn't span continents and decades as great as the first novel. I liked watching Shaman discover the secrets of his father, and was appalled at Rob. J's end. Makawa's (hope I'm spelling that right) fate was shocking, as was that of Comes Singing - I didn't see it coming at it was handled beautifully, with the utmost drama.

The book also gets points for surprising me with the word 'poontang'. Always nice to learn a little something about language.

I would have liked perhaps a little more in the way of fight in the protagonist (Shaman), he doesn't have to fight very hard for his happiness at the end of the novel, and I thought there should have been a more definite ending to the conspiracy storyline - though I understand why it ends as it does.

It's a great novel, and I think I even like it more that 'The Last Jew' though I know I'll be reading both again, as well as the rest of the series.

Se me ha hecho un poco pesado (desde luego más que "El médico"), sobre todo la parte de la guerra. Es una buena novela, muy bien documentada, y entretenida; pero a veces da la impresión de que se extendía sin razón aparente en algunas partes.

No es mala, pero me gustó más "El médico" :)

Em o Xamã, Noah Gordon dá sequência à história da Família Cole, narrada em O Físico, e da sua relação com a medicina. O cenário é os Estados Unidos do século XIX, envolto em discussões envolvendo as populações indígenas, a escravidão, os dogmas religiosos e a Guerra da Secessão. A obra narra a história de dois médicos, Roberto Judson Cole, que possui o dom de sentir a morte chegando em seus pacientes, e Robert Jefferson Cole, um menino surdo, também conhecido como Xamã. Achei interessante a abordagem da relação (e conflitos) entre a medicina ocidental e o misticismo da curandeira. Em alguns momentos, a narrativa fica um pouco lenta, principalmente quando o autor se aprofunda no tema da Guerra da Secessão. No entanto, apesar de não superar O Físico, ainda assim é um ótimo romance histórico!

Nota: 7,5/10

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This book is the Sequel to The Physician. As I'm sure you know by now, The Physician was set in 11th Century England and Shaman is set in 1840s through 1860s frontier America, so this is not a sequel in the traditional sense. Indeed, aside from a few anecdontes about a Cole dynasty of physicians in Scotland and the inheritence of the "gift" of sensing when patients are about to die, The Shaman is a free standing novel.

The Shaman is about Dr. Rob J. Cole, who is forced to immigrate to America after becoming involved in political protests in his native Scotland that resulted in the hanging death of a friend. He first arrives in Boston and is taken under the wing of Oliver Wendell Holmes, a famous Boston doctor who is the father of the even more famous Supreme Court Justice. While in Boston, Rob J. lives in a boarding house and lives a hand to mouth existence as a doctor to the poor. Ultimately, he decides that Boston is not for him and decides to move west. He travels and works his way to Illinois, where he settles in the small town of Holden's Crossing, in the Quad Cities area. While there, the reader meets members of the local Indian tribe - particularly a shaman named Makwa-Ikwa, whom Rob J. befriends and with whom he develops a close working relationship. We also see the developments of the xenophobic Know Nothing Party and the underground railroad in Illinois, and the civil war through Rob J.'s eyes, as the bulk of the novel is narrated through Rob J.'s journal.

The second central character in the novel is Rob J.'s only natural son, also named Rob J., but who is called "Shaman." Shaman became deaf due to a boyhood illness and adeptly learns to navigate his world as a deaf child and later as a deaf physician.

This novel is a fascinating look at the development of America. The reality of the civil war and the racial tensions that infected American politics in the era leading up to the war are told in detail, without white-washing. Indeed, the sections on the civil war are at times long and dull, but at other times are shocking in their detail. Gordon is a gifted writer with a talent for creating a complex understanding of a period in history. While Shaman was less interesting at times than The Physician, the characters were no less developed and the ability to create a 'historical mood' no less compelling. I rate this novel 4.5 stars.

Continúa la saga Cole de los médicos escoceses. Ahora la disidencia política empujará a Rob a emigrar a Estados Unidos, donde podrá reiniciar su vida. Las prácticas médicas europeas, influidad por el conocimiento árbe, chocarán con el saber tradicional de las tribus indias.