The Secret Chord

Author(s): Geraldine Brooks

Fiction.

"A page turner. . .Brooks is a master at bringing the past alive. . .in her skillful hands the issues of the past echo our own deepest concerns: love and loss, drama and tragedy, chaos and brutality." - Alice Hoffman, The Washington Post


 


A rich and utterly absorbing novel about the life of King David, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of People of the Book and March.


 


With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times bestselling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.


 


The Secret Chord provides new context for some of the best-known episodes of David's life while also focusing on others, even more remarkable and emotionally intense, that have been neglected. We see David through the eyes of those who love him or fear him--from the prophet Natan, voice of his conscience, to his wives Mikhal, Avigail, and Batsheva, and finally to Solomon, the late-born son who redeems his Lear-like old age. Brooks has an uncanny ability to hear and transform characters from history, and this beautifully written, unvarnished saga of faith, desire, family, ambition, betrayal, and power will enthrall her many fans.


 


From the Hardcover edition.


Product Information

Geraldine Brooks is a master at bringing the past alive. - The Washington Post Brooks evokes time and place with keenly drawn detail ... with the verve of an adroit storyteller ... Ambitious and psychologically astute. - Publishers Weekly a thundering, gritty, emotionally devastating reconsideration of the story of King David - New York Times Book Review Mesmerising - The Australian Women's Weekly George R.R. Martin's got nothing on the biblical chroniclers of David, King of Israel ... This is the original GAME OF THRONES. - Miami Herald THE SECRET CHORD is powerful storytelling, its landscape and time evoked in lyrical prose ... Brooks has crafted from THE SECRET CHORD a compelling read, contemporary in its relevance. - The Guardian Australia A skillful reimagining ... gracefully and intelligently told. - Kirkus Reviews Rich and imaginative ... David is as compelling as he is contradictory. We feel his desires and understand his mistakes. - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in Sydney's western suburbs. In 1982 she won a scholarship to the journalism master's program at Columbia University in New York. Later she worked for the WALL STREET JOURNAL, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In 2006 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel MARCH. Her novels CALEB'S CROSSING and PEOPLE OF THE BOOK were both NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers, and YEAR OF WONDERS and PEOPLE OF THE BOOK are international bestsellers, translated into more than 25 languages. She is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction works NINE PARTS OF DESIRE and FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. In 2011 she presented Australia's prestigious Boyer Lectures, later published as THE IDEA OF HOME. In 2016 she was appointed Officer in the Order of Australia for her services to literature. Geraldine Brooks lives in Massachusetts with her husband, author Tony Horwitz, and their two sons.

General Fields

  • : 9780733636264
  • : Hachette Australia
  • : Hachette Australia
  • : September 2016
  • : September 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Geraldine Brooks
  • : Paperback
  • : 823/.914
  • : 400
  • : FV