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The Book of the Alchemist
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Andalusia in 1938 is nearing the end of the Spanish Civil War when Professor Enrique de los Reyes Pinzón and his grandson are taken hostage by desperate Republican fighters inside a cathedral marked for destruction. While helping to place explosives in the crypt, Pinzón discovers a hidden mosque and an ancient manuscript. Reading it aloud becomes a way to occupy the prisoners, delay their captors and search for a possible route to freedom.
The manuscript returns the story to al-Andalus in 1063, where a Jewish physician and alchemist, a Muslim prince and a Christian mason form a friendship across religious boundaries. Their ideals are tested by dynastic conflict, persecution and the advancing wars of the Reconquista. By setting one civil war inside another, the novel compares political absolutism and religious intolerance with the fragile possibilities of friendship, creativity and moral courage.
Historical periods
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