geraldine brooks the secret chord review

Transliterations aside, Brooks’s presentation of historical material is spectacularly accessible.

“The Secret Chord” picks up steam, however, to become an excellent novel that elegantly handles its historical context. This implied request to treat the book with the seriousness owed to a work backed by research distracts in the beginning from its literary qualities. From her preliminary declaration that she uses Tanakh transliterations like “Shaul, Shmuel and Shlomo, for example, rather than the perhaps more familiar Saul, Samuel, and Solomon” onward, an unstylish anxiety prevails. And so, in the midst of otherwise beautifully crafted prose, in which historical facts and details are melded seamlessly into a vivid, compelling narrative, Brooks inserts transliterations from Hebrew. Brooks appears determined to disprove an assumption that good history and a good novel cannot meet in a single book. But it initially raises concerns with its awkward beginning. Born and raised in Australia, she lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her husband, the author Tony Horwitz.Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks’s “The Secret Chord” bills itself as a bloodstained reimagining of the life of King David. She has also written the acclaimed nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Geraldine Brooks is the author of four novels, the Pulitzer Prize-winning March and the international bestsellers Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and Year of Wonders. “The best historical fiction… Brooks gives the whole king his due… It’s a tall order to breathe life into such a human being, and she manages it admirably.” -NPR “A compelling read, contemporary in its relevance… powerful storytelling, its landscape and time evoked in lyrical prose.” - The Guardian Brooks offers new perspectives on a character whose story has captured the Western imagination for millennial… she breaks from the biblical version by giving voice to the voiceless women in David’s life: wives and lovers, a daughter, a mother-the beloved and the scorned.” -The Boston Globe Now out in paperback, The Secret Chord traces the arc of King David's 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. Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks will join us to read and sign copies of her most recent novel, The Secret Chord.

Geraldine brooks the secret chord review