Announcing the release of “THE HEART OF THE LION: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood”

Imagine that you were born with a blazing desire to make your mark on the world, and that you knew you had what it took to achieve those far-reaching ambitions. And then imagine that your birth coincided with the rise of a new art form, and you were part of the generation who invented it as they went along. Ah, but there’s a catch. Isn’t there always? The heart in which this all-consuming drive lives is also weak and frail. It could stop beating at any time.

Do you hold nothing back as you pursue your dreams, knowing that the unrelenting pressures and strains could be the very thing that brings you down?

Or do you sacrifice those ambitions, even though they fuel and fulfill you? And you live your life with caution instead, because every safe and sensible choice you make will help you live another day?

This is the dilemma that Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studios from 1924 to 1936, faced every day of his remarkable life. And that’s the predicament I wanted to explore in my new novel.

I am very excited to let you know that THE HEART OF THE LION: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood is now available.

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“THE HEART OF THE LION: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood” by Martin Turnbull

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Lose yourself in the Golden Age of Hollywood—and discover the story of the man who helped create it.

Hollywood in the 1920s: the motion picture industry is booming, and Irving Thalberg knows it takes more than guts and gumption to create screen magic that will live forever. He’s climbed all the way to head of production at newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is determined to transform Leo the Lion into an icon of the most successful studio in town

The harder he works, the higher he soars. But at what cost? The more he achieves, the closer he risks flying into oblivion. A frail and faulty heart shudders inside this chest that blazes with ambition. Thalberg knows that his charmed life at the top of the Hollywood heap is a dangerous tightrope walk: each day—each breath, even—could be his last. Shooting for success means risking his health, friendships, everything. Yet, against all odds, the man no one thought would survive into adulthood almost single-handedly ushers in a new era of filmmaking.

This is Hollywood at its most daring and opulent—the Sunset Strip, premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, stars like Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford—and Irving is at the center of it all.

From the author of the Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels comes a mesmerizing story of the man behind Golden Age mythmaking: Irving Thalberg, the prince of Tinseltown.

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You can read Chapter 1 on my website.

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THE HEART OF THE LION - a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood by Martin Turnbull