Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus: A Novel - Hardcover

Rodrigues Dos Santos, José

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061173185 ISBN 13: 9780061173189

Publisher: William Morrow, 2008

Synopsis

When Thomas Noronha, a professor of history and an expert cryptographer, is called upon to finish an unresolved investigation involving an aged scholar who is found mysteriously dead in his hotel room, his life takes several unexpected and dramatic turns. As Thomas slowly begins to unravel the cryptograms and enigmas that shroud the old professor's work, he finds a code that could possibly change the course of historical scholarship:

Moloc Ninundia Omastoos

In his quest to decipher this mysterious code, Thomas travels around the world from Lisbon to Rio, New York, and Jerusalem. He quickly immerses himself in the fascinating history of the discovery of the Americas, and the one enigma that no historian has ever been able to solve: the true identity of Christopher Columbus.

Mesmerizing in the way in which it reinterprets history most have come to regard as fact, Codex 632 reveals what could be one of the greatest historical misinterpretations of all time.

About this title

About the Author

José Rodrigues dos Santos is a professor at the New University of Lisbon and a journalist at RTP, the Portuguese public television station. He is the author of the international bestseller Codex 632. Born in Mozambique, he lives in Portugal.

José Rodrigues dos Santos nació en Mozambique en 1964. Es escritor y periodista y fue director de Información de RTP, la televisión pública de Portugal. Es también el autor de El códice 632.

Reviews

Historian and journalist dos Santos tries his hand at fiction in this ambitious but disappointing tale of mistaken identity. Hired by a foundation to prepare a historical study of the discovery of Brazil, historian Martinho Toscano gets sidetracked by a "five-hundred-year-old conspiracy" regarding Christopher Columbus's identity. When Toscano drops dead, the foundation recruits historian Thomas Noronha, a history professor and cryptologist, to recover Toscano's work (it's written in code). Noronha, who needs cash to pay for his daughter's heart operation, reluctantly accepts the offer of $5,000 a week and a $500,000 bonus. Relying on his code-breaking skills and brushing aside pesky complications-an unlikely affair with a beautiful young Swedish exchange student, his crumbling marriage and his daughter's deteriorating health-Noronha retraces Toscano's footsteps from Rio de Janeiro to Jerusalem to Lisbon in search of the real Columbus. Unfortunately, the narrative rests uneasily on a series of extended tutorials, and the characters are bloodless. The slow unraveling of a conspiracy, while interesting, isn't enough to sustain a narrative lacking action and suspense. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Thomas Noronha, Portuguese history professor and cryptanalyst, receives a call from a shadowy American foundation, and before you can say Da Vinci Code, he’s deep into an investigation of the research done by a fellow scholar, recently deceased. Although ostensibly looking into the European discovery of Brazil, the other scholar was on the trail of a mystery related to Christopher Columbus, and Noronha’s own pursuit takes him to New York, Brazil, and Jerusalem, decoding clues from kabbalah and the symbology of the Knights Templar. On the personal front, his fling with a beautiful Swedish student causes a rift in his marriage, already stressed by the special needs of his daughter, Margarida. Huge chunks of exposition constitute most of the dialogue—in fact, most of the text—and when it’s revealed, the secret about Columbus’ identity doesn’t seem worth all the fuss. But readers who enjoy historical puzzles probably won’t mind. Codex 632 was originally published in Portugal in 2005. --Mary Ellen Quinn

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061173185
• ISBN 13: 9780061173189
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336