<p><b>An orphan leaves Dark Ages London to study medicine in Persia in this “rich” and “vivid” historical novel from a <i>New York Times–</i>bestselling author (<i>The New York Times</i>).</b><br /><br /> A child holds the hand of his dying mother and is terrified, aware <i>something</i> 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.<br /><br /> Arab <i>madrassas </i>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.<br /><br /><i>The Physician</i> is the first book in <i>New York Times–</i>bestselling author Noah Gordon’s Dr. Robert Cole trilogy, which continues with <i>Shaman</i> and concludes with <i>Matters of Choice</i>.</p>