Portugal is justly famous for many things--castles, beaches, Fatima, romantic language, exploration, fado music, cod, port, Christopher Columbus . . . back up. Christopher Columbus? Not so much? If José Rodrigues dos Santos has his way, with the publication tomorrow of Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus (Morrow, $24.95, 9780061173189/0061173185, April 1, 2008), Columbus will no longer be considered Italian, but Portuguese; in fact, a Portuguese Jew. 
Pictured left at the Monastery of Jerónimo, José Santos, whose name is pronounced Zhoosay Santoosh, is a TV journalist, evening news anchor for Portugal's highest-rated station, journalism professor, CNN World Report contributor and five-time novelist. Possessed of an insatiable curiosity (and stamina--he has reported from such hot spots as Karachi, Kurdistan, Baghdad, Afghanistan, East Timor, Lebanon and Tibet), his novels contain an amazing array of information that he mixes with current issues. Scientific proof for God, quantum physics, Einstein and Ben-Gurion, global warming, the Antarctic, the East Timor uprising, Tibet--it's all data for his writing. He says, "Small doors can lead to large rooms," and after spending three days with him while he opened some doors into the history of Portuguese politics and exploration, one could only marvel at the rooms he uncovered.
Who knew that a big debate on Columbus's nationality began around 1892, and forged documents were produced to back up Spanish and Italian claims? Italy won the PR battle, partly by insisting that the two competing Columbuses were the same man. But how did a lowly Genoese silk weaver become an educated navigator versed in cosmography? Or, even more difficult, marry into Portuguese nobility? Why did he write in Castilian, Latin and Portuguese, but use a translator for Tuscan or the Genoese dialect? Even more provocative are the clues pointing to his being Jewish or a Marrano, a Jew pretending to be a Christian. His signature was kabbalistic. He used astronomical tables written in Hebrew. The crew on his voyage to the New World included 40 Genoese, at a time when "Genoese" was code for Jewish. And why did he set sail in 1492? He was working for King John II, to throw Spain off the track in the competitive search for a sea route to India. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas had divided the world between Spain and Portugal, and India was the sought-after crown jewel.
All the facts are true--it's a matter of interpretation.
In Codex 632, history professor and cryptographer Thomas Noronha is approached by the Americas History Foundation to continue the research started by Martinho Toscano, who has mysteriously died in Rio de Janeiro. Toscano was investigating the true story of the discovery of Brazil, and the Foundation asks Noronha to decipher Toscano's notes, which include a strange phrase, Moloc Ninundia Omastoos. Cue the dramatic music, and the academic hunt is on. As Noronha pursues information from Rio to Jerusalem, he discovers conspiracies both old and new involving the Foundation, the Knights Templars, the Kabbalah and Iberian politics and espionage. The usual suspects, but with the twist of Columbus's actual identity and mission, plus seafaring adventures during the Age of Discovery, a seductive Swedish student, the secret language of flowers and Foucault's Pendulum.
A bestseller in Portugal (where it beat out Harry Potter), Santos' book is more a novel about history and interpretation than a thriller. The codes and the mystery are a framework for discoveries, ours and the voyagers'. The Spanish press has compared it to Umberto Eco, the Brazilian press to Dan Brown. His style is influenced by writing for TV and radio; his favorite author is Somerset Maugham. In Portugal, he says, authors like Crichton, King or Grisham don't sell as well as one would think, because they aren't "literary" enough. Santos's book does not seem to be literary either until you find out that the original book is much longer than the heavily-edited English version. What's missing? According to Santos, character development and a lot of writing about food and meals, which are important to the Portuguese. According to Jorge from the tourism bureau, sex scenes. What's left, while a bit light on character, is still a captivating history lesson.
José Rodrigues dos Santos has written a book that fascinates and informs as well as entertains; it's also a mini-travelogue of an incredibly beautiful country. His passion for discovery, and for sharing that passion, is captured in an excerpt from the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa:
Put all you are
Into the smallest thing you do.
The whole moon will then gleam in every pool,
Because it rides so high.
--Marilyn Dahl
[Many thanks to Morrow, TAP Portugal Air and Turismo de Lisboa for giving Shelf Awareness the opportunity to meet the author.]