Get ready to immerse yourself in a world of intrigue and suspense with the upcoming release of The Lost Tarot, the very anticipated new novel by the Department of English’s very own Sarah Henstra, the Governor General’s Literary Award winning author. We can’t wait! In the meantime, whet your appetite for this historically rich and sizzling page-turner with a CBC Ottawa interview with Sarah here, and White Wall Review’s review of Sarah’s novel The Red Word, which won the Governor General’s Award for fiction in 2018.
The novel sounds like exactly what we want to read this summer, full of magic, mystery, art, and secrets that have huge consequences. Here’s a description from the Penguin Random House website:
A legendary set of tarot cards is the key to unravelling decades of secrets in this dazzling novel about art and deception, from Governor General’s Literary Award–winning author Sarah Henstra.
Theresa Bateman, a struggling junior art historian in Toronto, receives a single tarot card in the mail. The image is unmistakably the work of celebrated avant-garde artist Lark Ringold, and its discovery would mean a breakthrough in Theresa’s career. But the legendary Ringold Tarot doesn’t exist. . . . Its paintings were lost in a fire that claimed Lark’s life along with dozens of others—the final, horrific implosion of a notorious cult called the Shown.
Sixty years earlier in England, Lark and his twin sister Nell join a bohemian commune led by their charismatic uncle. While Lark settles happily into his work on the tarot project to aid in his uncle’s occult teachings, Nell finds it harder to adjust. Just beneath the Shown’s golden surface she uncovers secrets that, if revealed, threaten to erupt into chaos.
Why was the tarot card sent to Theresa? How can she prove its connection to Ringold when her art-world superiors declare it a fake? And who has been holding onto it for all these years—and why? As Theresa follows the trail of the lost tarot, she is drawn into the deeply entwined mysteries of Nell, Lark and the Shown. What begins as the tale of one artist and the battle over his legacy unspools into a web of passion, violence and deceit. In twist after startling twist, and in vibrant, exquisite prose, The Lost Tarot is a landmark novel about love, creativity, power and perception.
Acclaimed poet, fiction writer, and playwright Kate Cayley (featured in this White Wall Review interview) calls The Lost Tarot “as intricate and beautiful as a gilded jewelry box with secret compartments. Just when you think you’ve got hold of the story and where it’s going, it reveals another layer. Lyrical and propulsive, it contains some of the most evocative considerations of art (what makes it, who makes it, and why) that I have ever read.”
With Sarah’s brilliance for crafting rich historical settings and captivating narratives, we’re counting down the days until we can read the magic of The Lost Tarot.