<DIV>A powerful South African saga — reminiscent of Leon Uris and Nadine Gordimer — <I>The Lion Seeker</I> is a thrilling ride through the life of Isaac Helger, from redheaded hooligan to striving young man on the make, under the shadow of World War II.</P><P>Following his family’s emigration from a village in Lithuania to Johannesburg’s impoverished Jewish quarter, Isaac struggles to buy his mother a house in the suburbs. But his fortune seeking soon leads him into a feud with a fascist Afrikaner who undermines him in the auto shop where Isaac has found the only work that ever felt true. Even as he loses his heart to a wealthy Parktown girl, his mother’s carefully guarded secret takes them to the diamond mines, where mysteries are unveiled in the desert rocks and Isaac begins to learn the bittersweet reality of success bought at any cost.</DIV>