The shaman

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The Shaman (English original title Shaman ) is a historical novel by the American writer Noah Gordon . The book was first published in 1992. The Shaman is the second volume in a trilogy that deals with the fictional medical dynasty of the Cole family. The first volume of the trilogy is the book Der Medicus , first published in 1986 , the third volume was published in 1996 with the title Die Erben des Medicus .

The book won the first James Fenimore Cooper Prize in 1993 .

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Robert J. Cole, a descendant of the Medicus , has to leave his Scottish homeland for political reasons. He moves to the New World and looks for happiness there. Cole acquires land and follows family tradition by raising sheep and working as a doctor. During his career in the still young settlement of Holden's Crossing, he meets members of the Sauks indigenous people who used to own the land. The encounter becomes crucial for him, because he learns to use the healing powers of nature and soon finds a friend and helper in the medicine woman . But soon Cole gets to know the dark side of young America. The Indians are almost nowhere welcome in America and those of them who work on his farm are murdered or flee. The United States of America is plunging into civil war. Despite his pacifism, Cole manages to help the troops of the north as a civilian doctor, his adopted son Alex, meanwhile, is fighting for the south and his son Robert Jefferson Cole, called Shaman, is fighting for a full training position at a university despite his deafness to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor.

Shaman completes his medical degree. He learns that his father has died of typhus and travels home, where he searches for his half-brother Alex and finally finds him in the Elmira prison camp. He also continues the ultimately successful search for the Indian killers that his father had been looking for all his life.

In the end he marries his childhood friend Rachel Geiger and adopts their two children. He lives with his family in Holden's Crossing, the place where he grew up, and builds a hospital with the help of some Franciscan nuns.

Protagonists

Rob J. Cole

Rob J. Cole lives in Scotland until a pamphlet he wrote forces him to flee the country. He is moving to the New World. Once there, he works as a doctor in an Irish slum before deciding to settle on the banks of the Mississippi and work as a country doctor in the up-and-coming town of Holden's Crossing. He soon got to know the Sauks tribe and developed a relationship with the medicine woman Makwa-Ikwa. At the same time, he meets the sick Sarah Bledsoe, whom he soon heals and marries.

Sarah Bledsoe

Sarah is widowed and has a young son when Rob J. meets her. During this time she is ill and claims to have cancer. This turned out to be wrong, however, as Rob J. diagnosed that the cause of her pain was not cancer but bladder stones. After the bladder stones were removed, Sarah regained her quality of life and soon moved in with Rob J. Cole, who fell in love with her. Sarah has two children.

Robert Jefferson Cole, called "Shaman"

Shaman is the child of Rob J. and Sarah. He loses his hearing after a childhood illness. However, he learns to read from the lips. Despite his deafness, he can eventually study medicine. He followed in his father's footsteps, took over his practice after his death and finally expanded it with the help of local nuns to include a new hospital on the family property.

Alex Cole

Alex is Sarah's first child. The question of paternity is not answered: Will Mosby, who died before his birth, and the politician Nick Holden are eligible. He grew up with his (half) brother in Holden's Crossing. Like his father and brother, he was in contact with the Sauks, but spent more time with farm worker Alden Kimball. He is supposed to take over the sheep farm from Rob J., as he proves to be a skilled worker. However, Alex leaves the family to fight in the American Civil War. After the war, in which he lost a foot and later parts of his lower leg, and his liberation from a Union camp, he decided, after some hesitation, to pursue a career as a doctor, because he was seriously injured in the war, the loss of the left lower leg, no longer as a farmer can and will see.

Alden Kimball

Alden is the farm helper that Rob J. hires on the advice of Nick Holden and is regarded as a hardworking and loyal worker until shortly before his death. However, he finally turns out to be the unclear killer of Makwa-Ikwa. Shaman refuses to bury him on his property, but takes his remains to the Mormon community where Kimball was born and finances his burial there.

Makwa-Ikwa

Called "Bear Woman", was the last fully trained shaman of the Sauks and partly brings up the children of the Coles, but this is viewed with strong jealousy by Sarah, as she has long assumed that her husband is having an affair with the Indian. Even the fact that Makwa-Ikwa swore to remain a virgin, otherwise she would lose her healing powers, does not convince her that the two only work together. Because of her ancestry, she is raped and murdered by three Indian-hating men in a wooded area near the Cole Farm. Even after Makwa-Ikwa's death, Sarah openly admits that she never liked her, but she still wishes that she could rest in peace.

Nick Holden

Initially a sympathetic figure and friend and generous, if not altruistic supporter of Rob J., Holden develops into a temporary antagonist of the novel, who repeatedly clashes with Rob J. because of his racist and anti-Indian views, which are gradually revealed, but still respects him as a doctor and respected member of the community. At the end of the story, he uses his political influence to free the seriously injured Alex, who is suffering from secondary diseases, from a Union prison camp. He sees himself as Alex's father and even offers him an adoption, which Alex refuses with thanks, saying he has a father and the name is Rob J. Cole.

Jason "Jay" Geiger

Rob J.'s neighbor and friend let their children grow up together. The Geigers are German-born Jews, but not particularly Orthodox. As a doctor and pharmacist, the two friends often work hand in hand until Jay decides to join the Confederate Army, although his reasons for doing so are never entirely clear. At first he is not enthusiastic about the wedding of Shaman and his young widowed daughter Rachel, but is convinced when Shaman guarantees him to raise at least Rachel's previous children Jewish or, in the event of a further refusal on the part of the Geiger, to allow Holden's Crossing with Rachel leave.

Rachel Geiger-Cole

Rachel is Shamans' childhood sweetheart and Jay's daughter. When the teacher at the village school gets married, she takes over her position and works with Shaman on his pronunciation, bringing it close to him with the vibrations of a grand piano and with his hand on her throat. She leaves Holden's Crossing to get married, but only a few years later returns as a widow and marries Shaman after they manage to overcome brief resistance from the Geigers.

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