The Song Before It Is Sung

Description

Two Oxford friends find their friendship destroyed by the rise of the Nazis.

On 20th July, l944 Adolf Hitler escaped death by a miracle in a failed bomb. He found the main conspirators, had them hung from meathooks and their executions filmed.
Axel Count Von Gottberg, is one of those hanged by Hitler. Sixty years after his death, his old friend Elya Mendel leaves a legacy of papers and letters to former student Conrad Senior. And with the legacy comes a mysterious duty. Drawn into a web of jealousy, betrayal, passion and terrible misunderstandings, Conrad's own life and marriage begin to suffer as a result of his obsession with the events of that momentous day in 1944.

The Song Before It Is Sung recreates the events of one fateful day which could have changed the world and ended the war, bringing Von Gottberg and Mendel vividly and brilliantly to life. Cartwright weaves an extraordinary story of human frailty, degradation and nobility, spanning Oxford in the nineteen thirties, pre-war Prussia and contemporary Britain.

Reviews

'Justin Cartwright is one of our best novelists, but he still feels like a buried treasure.' Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year 'Cartwright is a beautifully evocative writer; also one who makes you think.' Scotsman 'His characters and their regrets, resentments, hopes and fears are very real, and his talent for spotting a telling detail can be devastating' Independent on Sunday

Author description

Justin Cartwright's novels include the Booker-shortlisted In Every Face I Meet, the Whitbread Novel Award-winner Leading the Cheers and the acclaimed White Lightning which was shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award. Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa, and now lives in Islington, London.