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.

From Publishers Weekly

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.)
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Edition details

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