The Lost Tarot: A novel

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.

SARAH HENSTRA is the author of The Red Word, which won the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. She is also the author of the young adult novels Mad Miss Mimic, a CLA Best Book for Teens and a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, and We Contain Multitudes, which was the 2022 Vermont Reads program title and was nominated for the White Pine Award. Sarah has a PhD in English and is a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

ISBN: 9780385688116
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: June 18, 2024

"The movement between the timelines [in The Lost Tarot], and the revelations in each [timeline], are dazzling, the sort of writing that bears lingering over while also virtually forcing the reader to plunge ahead." —Toronto Star

"Sarah Henstra writes gorgeously: her words are poetic, precise, vibrant; more importantly, they cast a magical net over the reader and draw them in tight. The Lost Tarot is offbeat, quirky and powerfully beguiling—a glittering treasure of a book. I absolutely loved it." —Jane Johnson, bestselling author of The Sea Gate and The White Hare

"So much to ponder over in Sarah Henstra's latest novel where secrets are stumbled upon and untwined: Art and the Occult, Surrealism and the magic of Seeing. Written in dazzling prose, The Lost Tarot probes the very essence of creation." —Eva Stachniak, author of The School of Mirrors

"This intriguing novel takes us into an artworld in which the surrealists were painting women as dolls and puppets. . . . Part-quest, part-aesthetic reflection, Henstra's fiction reveals the stories hidden beneath the artist's brush stroke. A fascinating read." —Kim Echlin, author of Speak, Silence

"Splendid, spirited and full of transformative magic, Sarah Henstra's The Lost Tarot entangles mysteries of academia, artmaking and the occult with a thoughtful meditation on seeing in a sinister and astonishing world. It weaves a twisty and engrossing web. I couldn't put it down!" —Catherine Bush, author of Accusation and Blaze Island