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

by José Rodrigues dos Santos

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061173185
• ISBN13: 9780061173189
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.1" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book for all interested in C. Columbus theme

Great book. Once you start it, you will not make anything else until you finish reading it... Great material for a movie script!

Under-appreciated... Read it.

Some reviews of this book have panned it for not being a thrilling-enough thriller. In my view, thrillers are a dime a dozen, and this book stands out as actually offering some credible substance about an important topic. If you've ever had a hankering to understand what the mysterious Christopher Columbus was really all about THIS IS THE BOOK YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR.

Review by Harvey Greenberg - August 10, 2008

CODEX 632 - THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, a Novel, written by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos. Reviewed by Harvey Greenberg Who was Christoper Columbus. Was he an uneducated Genoese silk-weaver, who had very little education and who suddenly became a great mariner (as the standard story goes), or was he actually Krishtobal Colon (Portuguese pronunciation), a Portuguese Jew who was educated and already an experienced seafarer, when he sailed the ocean blue for Spain in 1492. Was he an Italian, or could he have been a Jew? CODEX 632, THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, written by Portuguese journalist and Lisbon University professor Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, is a wonderful historic novel and a really fun book to read. Columbus was an enigmatic person, who never actually told people where he was born, and kept many things about himself and his family secret. This book is about many of those secrets. Columbus, who always called himself Krishtobal Colon, and never Columbus, may have been something other than Italian. Many books have been written purporting that Columbus was actually a Jew, and there is much circumstantial evidence and otherwise to show this to be the case. In this novel, the author uses mostly known facts, but also much conjecture to give a great story. The story starts as a Professor Toscano, from a university in Lisbon, dies suddenly in Rio de Janeiro, while researching Columbus' roots for an obscure New York-based historic institution. Tushcano has kept his conclusions from the institution, and he died mysteriously prior to giving the institution his conclusions. The historic institution enlists Professor Thomas Noronha, also of Lisbon, to complete Toscano's work. The New York institution offers to pay Noronha $5,000 per week and $500,000 if he succeeds in solving the mystery. How can Noronha say no? He doesn't. Professor Noronha is a specialist in teaching about ancient codes and cyphers. During his research, Noronha travels to Rio, Jerusalem, New York, as well as numerous places in Portugal. Noronha gets into jams worthy of a spy thriller (Noronha has a damaging affair with a student, and his daughter has Downes Syndrome). Dos Santos' wonderful story finds Noronha meeting with Kaballist Rabbis in Jerusalem. The Rabbis conclude that Columbus' signature contained Secret Marrano Jewish Code (this is probably factual and is mentioned in Encyclopedia Brittannica - my late father showed it to me in his edition). Noronha meets Professor Toscano's aging wife, who lets Noronha borrow and copy Toscano's personal notes. Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that Toscano's most secret papers are in his safe, but she has only a cryptic code indicating the safe's combination (remember - codes are Noronha's specialty). Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that he should visit Prof. Toscano's old friend, a Count in Tomar, for some hints regarding the code and otherwise. You won't believe what startling fact

History lessons in fiction

Sometimes fiction is the best way to get people who would otherwise discount anything with the slightest hint of looking like a history textbook to stop and take time to read and learn. Yes, the book wasn't full of action and adventure like Dan Brown's books, but it was still clever and interesting. I found the qestions it posed about Christopher Columbus to be thought provoking; and the use of code to be engaging. I admit a bias to historical novels; and am a big fan of people like Shaara, Eco, and B. Cornwell. This fact does not mean I don't enjoy a good story, and this was a good story. It could have used some more character depth and action scenes; but it was still enjoyable. Don't sell the reading public short. I'm not the only one who enjoys a book that challenges me to think.

A thriller of ideas

I was advised by a friend who also loves historical mysteries that this novel was a must-read, but the criticism I read here got me worried. Nevertheless, I trusted my friend and read the book - and I'm glad. I guess there is some kind of misunderstanding concerning this book: it seems to me that this is not a thriller, at least not in the traditional sense of the genre. If you're looking for an action-packed novel, you're bound to be disappointed. There are no shootings, no chases, no last-minute escapes. So, why did I enjoy so much the novel? Well, precisely because it's not an action thriller. If it's a thriller, let's call it a thriller of ideas. What is thrilling here is not the physical action, but the mystery around Columbus - and we are talking here about a true mystery, not a fictional one. The real action is thus not set in the character's plot, but in the way the characters question and unveil the past. Believe me, here the book is one of the best thrillers I've ever read. It surely beats Dan Brown. Some of the things it reveals are really mind boggling and did change my understanding of the process that lead to the discovery of our continent. This is a novel for people who seek understanding, not for people who seek blood.