An old latin teacher who has led a very straightforward life with no big surprises suddenly finds himself endeavouring in an adventure in Portugal. After meeting a mysterious Portuguese woman and shortly after stumbleing across the writings of an intriguing doctor from Lisbon he leaves his classroom in the middle of a lesson and takes the night train to Lisbon. While translating the doctor's manuscript he follows the footsteps of the author and finds not only a fascinating life story but also another, so far unexplored, part of himself and returns a different person.

I have read this book in German and absolutely loved it. I will send it to tabby-cat-owner who just sent me 5 1001-books all the way from the US. I hope you like it.

edit (17 November): Unfortunately I just heard from a friend and found the same info online that the English version is not as good - apparently sloppy translation and loads of typos. Sorry for that...

Starting its journey to tabby-cat-owner.

I received this surprise RABCK from LilyKlip in the mail with an encouraging letter. Thank you so much, LilyKlip. I am alredy reading the book and it is quite fascinating. It is just the kind of book that I like.

Overall, I found this book interesting. I liked the idea of a man, the Latin teacher disrupting his life to seek after something that intrigues him, searching for clues to understand the life of someone, a Lisbon doctor who has lived in an earlier time. It was convenient that this Lisbon doctor was very fond of words and wrote many documents chronicling his struggles with philosophy and life.

The author of this book makes an assumption, or rather a character that this author creates, this doctor in Lisbon, makes an assumption that is labeled truth. This assumption is that there is no God. This cannot be accepted as a truth. It can't be proved. In any case, I do not accept this as a truth. A false premise invalidates the logical argument that is built on this premise.

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." (I Corinthians 3:19) This Bible verse helped me to put this book in perspective. The ruminations of this Lisbon Doctor reputed to be exceptionally intelligent were not easy to comprehend. Because of that, this book cannot be read quickly.

Generally, I found myself liking the Latin teacher and following his investigations and wanderings with interest and good will. I found myself not liking this Lisbon doctor whose life the Latin teacher was discovering. His life was somewhat tragic.

Thank you again, LilyKlip for this unique book. There were not that many typos.

This book has been mailed to valpete of Walnut Creek, California.

I hope you enjoy this book, valpete.

Oh, what a nice surprise. Sounds like a fascinating book. I look forward to reading it!

Sending this along to another BCer who has this on her Wishlist. Enjoy!

Valpete! Thank you so much for a lovely novel. I look forward to reading it!

I began this book intrigued. It read similarly to Shadow of the Wind, which I loved, but the more I read, the more it seemed to drag. It had promise, but didn't hold my attention. I found the idea that this language professor learnt Portuguese in a few days a bit preposterous. Some ideas here were lovely, and the idea of the book was good.

Left on some rocks near the beach. Perhaps will find a reader?