The Author
José Rodrigues dos Santos is the bestselling novelist in Portugal. He is the author of
seven essays and
twenty-two
novels, including Portuguese blockbusters
Codex 632, which sold
217 000 copies,
The Einstein Enigma,
204 000
copies,
The Seventh Seal,
207 000 copies, and
The Wrath of God,
200 000 copies
in Portugal. His worldwide sales exceed 3 million copies, with number one bestselling books in multiple countries.
José’s fiction is published or is about to be published in 20 languages. His novels The Wrath of God won the 2009 Porto Literary Club Award, The Devil's Hand won the 2012 Best Novel Award of Portal da Literatura, and The Governor's Lover won the 2018 Bertrand Best Novel Award. His other novels, Codex 632 and The Einstein Enigma, were longlisted for the 2010 and 2012 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
José is also a journalist and for 25 years a university professor. He works for Portuguese public television, where he presents Telejornal, RTP’s Evening News. As a reporter he has covered wars around the globe, including Angola, East Timor, South Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq, Bosnia, Serbia, Lebanon, Georgia and Libya. His latest field assignments have been the Ukrainian crisis and the Iraqi war on ISIS. He has been awarded three times by CNN for his reporting and twice by the Portuguese Press Club.
José has a Ph. D. in war reporting.
He is considered by readers Portugal’s best contemporary writer, according to opinion polls by the Reader's Digest Trusted Brand Novelist of Portugal and the 5 Star Literary Personality of Portugal.
His latest novels,
The Magician of Auschwitz and
The Birkenau Scrolls have just been released and altogether have already sold
110 500 copies.
The book tells the story of a Jewish magician, the Great Nivelli, who crosses paths with a Portuguese SS soldier
and a young Russian woman in Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, Nivelli’s magic will play a central role in a largely unknown event: the
prisoner revolt at Birkenau. The Magician of Auschwitz and
The Birkenau Scrolls show us the Shoah as it has never been told. Based on true events and real characters,
José Rodrigues dos Santos’ riveting novels take us to the darkest place on Earth and unveil unknown episodes of the Holocaust, including the role
esotericism and mysticism played in the Final Solution.
The Magician of Auschwitz and its sequel,
The Birkenau Scrolls, establish José Rodrigues dos Santos as one of the most important authors of contemporary literature.
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