The Book of the Alchemist

Author(s): Adam Williams

Jan/Feb Highlights 2010

Andalucia, 1938 - towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, a group of Republican soldiers kidnap Professor Pinzon and his grandson and hold them hostage in St Jaime's Cathedral together with a group of townspeople. Searching the Cathedral, they discover a crypt leading into a secret space, a medieval mosque directly underneath them, undisturbed for hundreds of years. The mosque holds a book, written in the eleventh century by Samuel the Jew. Reading it to his grandson, the Professor realises that Samuel's tale - a story of lifelong friendship, love, and religious warring between Christians, Muslims and Jews in medieval Spain - has anticipated many of the events in the ideologically torn world of the mid-twentieth century. And in its description of the building of the mosque, Samuel's tale may also hold the secret to freedom for the hostages ...

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'Reading this tale about Spain struggling to reconcile its identities is like opening a beautifully wrapped parcel to find a gift of equal wonder within ... The parallels between past and present in this book, and again with reality, will touch the heart of any reader'**** -- Straits Times 'An epic historical and romantic story as well as an impressive first novel.' -- Sunday Mirror on THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE 'This book is poetic and romantic in parts, harrowing and tragic in others' **** -- Heat on THE EMPEROR'S BONES 'A rattling good read. Full of love and loss and guts and gore and derring-do, this is as good as an adventure story gets ... Williams is a master' -- The Times on THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE 'A blockbuster with a difference' -- Daily Mail on THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE

Adam Williams, whose family has lived in China since the late nineteenth century, was born and raised in Hong Kong. For the last eighteen years he has been representative in Beijing of a Far East trading conglomerate. In 1999 he received an OBE for services to Sino-British trade. Adam has three children and lives in China and Italy.

General Fields

  • : 9780340899144
  • : Hodder & Stoughton
  • : Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
  • : 0.59
  • : November 2009
  • : 238mm X 169mm X 33mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Adam Williams
  • : Paperback
  • : 1
  • : English
  • : 823.92
  • : 448