Lion Heart (41 page)

‘A compelling and candid portrait of a family in crisis’

Mail on Sunday

‘Extraordinarily bold … This is a funny, angry, moving novel’

Independent

‘Impressive … an intelligent, generous and unsentimental take on

an English middle-class family’

Daily Telegraph

The Song Before It Is Sung

On 20 July 1944, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped an assassin’s bomb. Axel von Gottberg and his conspirators were hunted down and hanged from meat-hooks, and the executions filmed. Sixty years later, Conrad Senior is left a legacy of letters by von Gottberg’s close friend, the legendary Oxford professor Elya Mendel, and becomes obsessed with what they reveal and finding the brutal film. Award-winning writer Justin Cartwright has conjured a masterwork that addresses the nature of friendship and what it means to be human, and it is a remarkable tapestry of passion, ideas, frailty and courage.

‘A richly detailed evocation of one of the darkest periods in modern history, and an eloquent exploration of human fallibility and guilt’

The Times

‘Heart-stopping … utterly accomplished’

Sunday Telegraph

‘A profound exploration of guilt, friendship, voyeurism and morality. A cracker’
Independent on Sunday

Lion Heart

By Justin Cartwright

A contemporary tale of belief, identity, the nature of fiction, and the power of romance,
Lion Heart
is Justin Cartwright’s most inventive and powerful work to date.

About the book

Richie Cathar’s father, Alaric, was a renaissance man: an intellectual, explorer, archaeologist, and historian. He was also a man of the sixties: a fantasist, absentee parent, and drug abuser. Alaric named his son after his hero, Richard the Lionheart, but left him little when he died apart from conflicting memories. Now Richie, thirtysomething, is in search of his own role.

Following his father’s trail to the Holy Land to research the art of the medieval Latin Kingdom, Richie’s quest—to uncover the fate of Christianity’s most sacred relic and the truth about his father—takes him from the high-table intrigue of Oxford to the imposing Crusader castles of Jordan, and into a passionate love affair with Noor—a Canadian-Arab journalist, whose fate will become entwined with Richie’s. Shot through with Justin Cartwright’s trademark sharp observation and heartbreaking drama,
Lion Heart
is a thrilling, romantic, and original piece of work.

For discussion

1. Australian Broadcasting Corporation presenter Ramona Koval described Cartwright’s novels as being “. . . based in contemporary settings but he’s able to suffuse them with the big questions that haunt us.” How true is this of
Lion Heart
? Does the ongoing quest to discover the True Cross overshadow the importance of the events happening in the present?

2. The character Haneen is shrouded in mystery throughout the story; she is the main source of information for both Richard and the reader, but the novel ends without us finding out much about her character. Why do you think that this might be? How significant is Haneen’s role in the novel?

3. Richard’s relationships with many other characters through the novel can be seen as complex due to each characters own personal emotional damage; he often considers himself to be fulfilling a role or need in the other’s life, while they do the same for him. Do you believe this is the case, or would you argue against it? Does this make you feel sympathetic toward the characters?

4. Cartwright’s narration in the novel varies greatly—what is the effect of this narrative style?

5. Richard concludes the story by stating that he aims “to be a good father” and “to live by writing,” as these aims are “both forms of immortality. Perhaps the only two that are available (330).” To what extent do you think the themes of death and immortality shape the novel?

6. Deception is a recurring theme throughout the novel; many characters are untruthful and assume false pretenses for their own purposes. Do you see Richard purely as a victim of the deceit of others, or is he equally fraudulent toward other characters as he pursues his own aims?

7. Do you think Cartwright provides an adequate ending to the story? Does Catherine’s suggestion to name the baby either Harry or Noor suggest a completeness and closure for Richard and herself, or do you believe it seems inconclusive, and hints at an underlying instability to their newfound happiness?

About the author

Justin Cartwright
’s novels include the Booker shortlisted
In Every Face I Meet
,
the Whitbread Award–winner
Leading the Cheers
,
the acclaimed
White Lighting
,
shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Award,
The Promise of Happiness,
selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club and winner of the 2005 Hawthornden Prize,
The Song Before It Is Sung
,
To Heaven by Water
,
and, most recently,
Other People’s Money
,
winner of the Spear’s Novel of the Year Award. Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and lives in London.

Copyright © 2014 by Justin Cartwright

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. For information, write to Bloomsbury USA, 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

library of congress cataloging-in-publication data

Cartwright, Justin.

Lion heart / Justin Cartwright.

pages cm

eISBN: 978-1-62040-184-2

1.  Richard I, King of England, 1157–1199—Fiction. 2.  Great Britain—History—Richard I, 1189–1199—Fiction. 3.  Crusades—Third, 1189–1192—Fiction. 4.  Historiography—Fiction.  I. Title.

PR6053.A746L57 2014

823'.914—dc23

2013036199

 
First published in Great Britain 2013        

First U.S. Edition 2014

This electronic edition published in March 2013

Visit 
www.bloomsbury.com
 to find out more about our authors and their books.

You will find extracts, author interviews, author events, and you 
can sign up for newsletters
 to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.