Blending historical fact with speculative fiction, magical realism, and sharp social insight, Neil Claremon’s return to the literary world tells a genre-defying tale of one man’s journey across time. In this historical novel, Claremon brings to light the remarkable intellect and enduring legacy of one of medieval Europe’s most influential yet under-appreciated Jewish thinkers, Abraham bar Hiyya. With masterful storytelling and meticulous research, Claremon paints a vivid portrait of bar Hiyya’s contributions as a mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and skeptic who earlier navigated the perils of the religious crossroads of medieval Spain and suddenly finds himself by accident materialized and resurrected in the future, an era both familiar and disorienting in a world (not unlike his own) hurtling toward its own golden age–or possible collapse. Thrust into the glare of modern media and political intrigue, Abraham must decide: is he a relic of the past, or a prophet of the future?
From the crossroads of medieval Spain to the high-tech tensions of the 21st century. “Genius in Two Worlds: The Tale of Abraham Bar Hiyya” is an unforgettable journey through time, identity, and the resilience of knowledge. When a 12th century polymath, Abraham bar Hiyya–astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, inventor–is inadvertently trapped in a time traveling device of his own making, he reawakens 900 years later into a transformed world in the 21st century. Arriving with a fortune in jewels that powered his time-machine, Abraham reawakens in a modern landscape that echoes his own era’s perils and aspirations. Abraham must now navigate an unfamiliar world where he finds himself shadowed by religious factions, courted by tech magnates and opportunists who covet his mysterious time-bending invention, and guided by a vibrant cast including a gypsy time-traveler, savants, scholars, and an entangling romance that resonates across centuries.
Neil Claremon was born and raised in New York. He graduated from Cornell University and received a master’s degree from the University of Arizona. While working on his PhD at Stony Brook University, and inspired by Native American and Mexican Indian cultures and shamanism, Claremon wrote his first book of poetry, “East by Southwest,” published by Simon & Schuster.
Because of this early work, Claremon was invited to become the director of the National Endowment for the Arts “Southwest Poetry Program”, where for five years he collaborated with prominent American and Native American writers and with Native American and Mexican Indian cultures and shamanism–profoundly influencing his future. Claremon wrote his acclaimed novel, “Borderland,” in 1975–one of the first contemporary books to consider alternative healing techniques and cited in The New York Times for “breaking a new literary terrain” and the Bloomsbury Review called him “a shaman and an original thinker.”
In addition to his novels and poetry, Claremon has written screen scripts and synopses of novels for film and television. In 1991, Claremon published his now classic book, “Zen in Motion–Lessons from a Master Archer on Breath, Posture, and Intuition,” a product of his tutelage with renowned Zen Master Kobun Chino Otagawa who helped establish Zen Buddhism in the U.S. and Europe blending traditional training with an in formal, compassionate teaching style.
Claremon, his partner, Ruth, his horse, Chatto and his parrot, Sammy, balance their time between Westchester, New York, and Tucson, Arizona, where he pursues his interest in cosmology. Zen, shamanism, Kabbalah and healing that continue to inspire his work and his life
