Cole Family Trilogy Books In Order

Publication Order of Cole Family Trilogy Books

Noah Gordon is a published American novelist.

Noah was born on November 11, 1926, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He lived with his mother Rose and his father Robert. He was the second child and named after his mother’s father, who had been a bookbinder. Noah’s grandmother lived with the family after his passing and was a maternal figure to the author. He grew up in a working-class area and was 15 when the U.S. went to war, with the fighting still going on in February 1945, when he graduated Classical High School.

The author volunteered and was enrolled in the U.S. Infantry. He completed basic training in South Carolina and California, going to the Presidio of Monterey to join Joint Assault Signal Companies as America readied to invade Japan. New weapons effectively ended that plan and the war itself with their deployment on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The author worked in San Francisco as an Army clerk to finish his service. He went to college by way of the GI Bill and attempted to study medicine with a pre-med course but ultimately switched to journalism. He had always wanted to be a journalist and novelist.

While at Boston University for journalism school, he met Lorraine Seay. Noah would graduate with his Bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1950. He would also graduate from Boston University the next year with his M.A. in the subjects of English and Creative Writing, while Lorraine graduated Clark with a B.A. in German. Noah worked as a periodicals junior editor at Avon Publishing Co. in New York and got married to Lorraine. He was there two years then worked on Focus magazine. The two had a child and then moved to Massachusetts.

Noah attempted to become a freelancer but then became a reporter for The Worcester Telegram. He was hired in 1959 by The Boston Herald as a general assignment reporter. He also participated in medical procedures at the time and was the editor for The Journal of Abdominal Surgery, then made the science editor. He also published novels about nursing and writing medical and science articles freelance that he sold to different publications and periodicals. Noah never forgot about becoming a novelist and wrote a novel outline and gave it to his literary agent who returned with a publishing contract. He had three children at the time and the contract was modest. Still, his wife supported him and he signed the contract. He then worked with Dr. Solomon in the medical field and wrote for Psychiatric Opinion while also writing his book The Rabbi at the same time, which would be a multi-week best seller on The New York Times. After that, he published the medical novel The Death Committee.

Gordon later published The Journal of Human Stress. His wife took on journal publishing so he had time to write novels in 1975, and Gordon wrote The Jerusalem Diamond. The couple would move to Ashfield, Massachusetts from Framingham and planted Christmas trees in their pasture and an orchard, flowers, and a garden. It proved to be a good place to write and there was always lots of wildlife to observe. Noah was a volunteer EMT, on the library board, and his wife was a town clerk and newspaper editor. Noah had a writing space to work in with a mountain view.

There he outlined the Cole family trilogy, which he would then write. It followed the Cole family through the generations, all physicians back to the 11th century. The first tracks Robert Jeremy Cole’s life from growing up as a boy in England to Europe and medical school in Persia and more. Robert Judson cole is the focus in the second novel, going to America from Scotland to deal with the Indians and Civil War. The third novel follows Dr. Roberta Cole as she attempts to make her way in the medical field as a young physician. Composed using only library research, The Physician did very well internationally, selling millions of copies after selling ten thousand hard copies in the United States. It would be adapted into a feature film released in 2013 called The Physician. Gordon would eventually leave their home and return to live close to Boston. He says he is blessed to have the friends and family he does.

Noah Gordon is the author of the Cole Family Trilogy. This series began with the publication of the debut novel The Physician in 1986. It was followed by the release of the second novel in the series, Shaman. The third novel to come out and complete the trilogy was Matters of Choice, also known by the title Choice. In 1993, Shaman won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize in the category of best historical fiction.

The Physician is the first novel in the Cole Family Trilogy by Noah Gordon. Read the book that the New York Times calls ‘vivid’! The place is London, the time is the 11th century.

Main character Rob Cole decided that he was going to leave London, with its disease and poverty. He chose to go across the land, supporting himself by juggling, hustling, and selling illness cures, finding out that healing has a mystical power to it. Through his travels, he discovers that he has a gift for healing.

Rob’s dream is to be a doctor, so he goes all the way to Persia. There, with its Arab universities, he starts a journey that may end up transforming him and changing the path of his destiny. What will happen? Read this novel to find out!

Shaman is the second novel in the Cole Family trilogy by Noah Gordon.

Robert Jeremy Cole left a legacy for his family. The oldest son in the family is given the first name and the same middle initial and often choose to enter the medical profession as Robert did. Some of them even received the gift, the same medical ability and diagnostic skill that Robert had. They also know when death is coming.

Robert Jefferson Cole is deaf and Robert’s son. They call him Shaman and his life is challenging. He has to figure out how to speak and then take on societal prejudices. He’s trying to find his place as his family and the country slowly witness the South and North’s conflict burgeoning. Pick up a copy of this book and read to the end to find out what happens!