A GOD THAT DOES NOT ANSWER

*IN HIS NAME — A CRUSADE TRILOGY* The Call • The Road • The Fall This trilogy tells the story of the Crusades from a different perspective. Not through kings, famous battles or celebrated warriors, but through the people who lived them. At the centre of the story is a boy. Young enough to still be uncertain of the world, but old enough by the standards of his time to be told that he must become a man. He hears the call. He is told of Jerusalem, of sacred ground, of duty, honour and forgiveness of sins. He watches men around him take the cross, and eventually he steps forward himself. He believes them. *THE CALL* is the story of belief. Of sermons, promises and expectations. Of a young man being handed iron and told what it means to be brave. But it is also the story of those left behind. A woman watches someone she loves disappear towards a horizon she cannot follow. She has no way of knowing whether she will ever see him again. Then comes **THE ROAD**. The great words begin to disappear. Hunger replaces glory. Disease takes men who survived the fighting. Friends are buried far from home. Languages change, landscapes change, and the road seems to have no end. The boy who left home believing he knew why he was going begins asking questions for which nobody has answers. Yet he keeps walking. Because sometimes turning back is harder than continuing. Finally comes **THE FALL**. Jerusalem. The place they had imagined for so long finally stands before them. But reaching the Holy City does not bring the simple ending they were promised. The boy who left home is now a man. At least, that is what they would call him. He has seen what people are capable of doing to one another when they believe God stands beside them. And somewhere along that road, the boy who first stepped forward disappeared. Meanwhile, far away, someone still waits. She does not know what he has seen. She does not know what he has done. Perhaps she does not even know whether he is alive. This trilogy is historical fiction built around the realities of the Crusades. The central characters are fictional, but the world surrounding them — the religious fervour, the journey, hunger, disease, violence, uncertainty and human cost — is rooted in history. It is not intended as a judgement on the faith of people who lived almost a thousand years ago. It is an attempt to stand beside them. To hear the call. To walk the road. And finally to ask what remained when it was all done. *THE CALL — Faith. Hope. Destiny.* *THE ROAD — Doubt. Endurance. Survival.* *THE FALL — War. Consequences. Silence.* Three albums. One journey. *IN HIS NAME*