As someone who totally enjoys their philosophy Huxley style, i found this book absolutely wonderful and incredibly thought provoking.

I really do love good philosophers who are able to place deep philosophical discourse into novels that can either be read just as stories and/or as works of philosophy. Aldous Huxley was a master at this after becoming annoyed that only academia would ever read his philosophy papers and wishing for a far further reaching demographic than academia - which Huxley certainly achieved. Peter Bieri, AKA Pascal Mercier, while not having written as much as Huxley certainly matches him, IMHO, for depth of thinking and skill of writing.

What i really enjoy about the philosophical novel is that, to my mind, it frees up the thinking of the philosopher to say much much more than if they were simply writing an academic paper. In the novel form the philosopher can ascribe thoughts and ideas to fictional characters and not then have to carry any burden for holding such a view point themselves, whether they do or not, they can simply blame it upon the character and distance themselves from it entirely. While in academic philosophy what is written is pretty much always blamed on the philosopher and history has shown that philosophers have expressed certain views while muting others in order to appease and placate the ruling powers of their societies, peers and academia. The philosophical novel, is in my opinion, far more honest than the academic paper.

Anyways, get your thinking cap on if you want to read this one. It'll certainly get the neurons fired up. ( )

I'm not having a good run with books at the moment, and whilst I really wanted to enjoy this one, I ended up persisting for 160 pages and then deciding that it wasn't for me. I did appreciate the very descriptive and philisophical nature of the story but is was just too slow. ( )

This book has everything!!!! A great storyline and lots of philosophical pondering.

There's a movie, which is also really good, but take my advice and watch the movie before you read the book. You'll thank me later.

Our MC, Raimund Gregorius is on a quest to find out everything he can about Amadeu de Prado after reading Amadeu's book, A Goldsmith of Words.

This book spoke to him. He felt as if the sentences were written for him alone. He is captivated by the author's portrait in the book. He decides on a whim to walk away from his teaching job and hop on the night train to Lisbon. He has never felt so awake and aware and mindful in his entire life as he is now.

The rest of the story follows Gregorius as he finds people that might know Amadeu and we get to hear more amazing passages from his book and letters that he has written. It's not long before WE long to meet this man as well!!!!!

If you're looking for action, you won't find it.

What you will find is pages and pages and pages of Amadeu's thoughts on life, death, religion, politics, love, loss, and his anger and disgust with God.

You will learn about his sisters, his parents, his loves, and his friends. And just like Gregorius you will want to know more.

You will want to have your favorite text highlighting tool handy as you read because you're going to be highlighting pretty much everything in this book. ( )

A plot made intriguing by its random beginning and unlikely protagonist, the piecing together of the life story of a man who has lived through challenging times, the insight into modern Portuguese history all intertwined with a philosophical discussion - this ought to be a fascinating book. It is in part but rather spoilt by, for me, the uninspiring philosophical thread and the strange failure to really bring De Prado's life into focus. October 2020. ( )

Mitten im Unterricht verläßt der Lehrer Raimund Gregorius seine Klasse und macht sich auf den Weg nach Lissabon, um der Spur eines geheimnisvollen portugiesischen Autors zu folgen. Auf seiner wundervollen Reise dringt er immer tiefer in dessen sagenumwobene Geschichte ein – doch was Gregorius erkennt, könnte ihn schließlich das Leben kosten ..