The Heart of the Lion

A Novel of Irving Thalberg's Hollywood

By: Martin Turnbull

Narrated by: Donald Davenport

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

Martin Turnbull's Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels have been optioned for the screen by film and television producer Tabrez Noorani.

©2020 Martin Turnbull (P)2020 Martin Turnbull

Wonderful

I can’t say enough good things about this book. I knew next to nothing about Thalberg and his cronies but I feel like I know him like a friend now and even some of his pals. I could hardly put the book down. Interesting interesting people. Good writing. Just all around excellent.

Can’t put it down

Takes you right back into the world of the studios and Irving thalberg. Great read!!

It was so clearly made up with a lot of hokey dialogue that it became tiresome.

I had to skip chapters, come back to it after listening to a good story, and I finally decided to slog through it. It was not worth the time.