Book description
In the latter half of the 13th century, Christian Europe again sought
to prise the Holy Land out of the grasp of the Infidel. Tens of
thousands took up the Cross - some for the greater glory of God,
others for baser motives: lust for power, for riches, for revenge.
THE CRUSADER tells the story of the seventh and last Crusade, as
experienced by a young Spanish nobleman, Francisco de Montcada. He is
the hero of this novel, but his tale is told by his former friend and
a fellow acolyte, a venal and moderately trustworthy Cistercian monk
named Brother Lucas. For Francisco has returned from the Levant a
broken and seemingly possessed man. The Inquisition decree that his
tortured soul be exorcized and the task falls to Brother Lucas.
Eschewing the Inquisition's more usual methods, the monk sits with the
silent, emaciated knight in his cell and talks to him. Slowly,
tentatively, Francisco begins to recount his story - a tale of how an
honourable man took up the Cross and found not the glory and
redemption for which he'd yearned but instead unimaginable cruelty,
barbarism and bloodshed.
Set against a thrillingly authentic historical backdrop, this
stirring novel of religious fervour and human passions, of greed and
betrayal, and love and war, brings a tumultuous era brilliantly to life.
Michael Eisner is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.
He has worked in refugee camps on the Thai Cambodia border and was in
Chile during the transition from Pinochet's rule to democracy. An expert
in international law, he worked on the Middle East peace process for the
U. S. State Department. It was during a trip to Syria, he visited the
massive medieval fortress, Krak des Chevaliers, and it inspired him to
write a novel about the Crusades. Michael Eisner live in New York City.
