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y separately published work icon Horse : A Novel single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 Horse : A Novel
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

'Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. 

'New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

'Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

'Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.' (Publication summary) 

Notes

  • Author's note: For Tony 

    Epigraph: 

    It will be the past

    and we'll live there together

    Patrick Philips, Heaven

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 38914350397662942.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 416p.
      Note/s:
      • Published June 14, 2022
      ISBN: 9780399562969
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hachette Australia , 2023 .
      image of person or book cover 8939528400302403721.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 400p.
      Note/s:
      •  Published 14 June 2023

      ISBN: 9780733649875
Form: audiobook
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hachette Australia , 2022 .
      image of person or book cover 5234414746108150436.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 14 hrs and 6 minsp.
      Note/s:
      • Published 15 June 2022
      ISBN: 9780733639692

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Dyslexic edition.

Works about this Work

Narratives of the Natural World : Fashioning Stories about Nature Robert Zhao Renhui, Carody Culver Carody Culver (interviewer), 2023 single work interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 82 2023;

'For Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Geraldine Brooks, history is rich with stories and characters that can illuminate the complexities of human experience. At the centre of her most recent novel, Horse, is a particularly famous four-legged figure: Lexington, the legendary American racehorse. But part of what led Brooks to this story – and the complex layers of injustice that lay beneath it – was her own late introduction to horseriding. In this conversation with Griffith Review Editor Carody Culver, Brooks shares the genesis and evolution of her relationship with man’s second-best friend.' (Publication abstract)

Geraldine Brooks : Horse Catherine Pardey , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , January 2023;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel
'In unearthing the story of a 19th-century thoroughbred, Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks examines racism then and now.'
Saddle up for an Epic Ride Gretchen Shirm , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 11 June 2022; (p. 14)

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel
The Best Books Released in June - from Historical Fiction to Memoir and Poetry Kate Evans , Claire Nichols , Sarah L'Estrange , Declan Fry , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel ; The Coast Eleanor Limprecht , 2022 single work novel ; Big Beautiful Female Theory Eloise Grills , 2020 single work autobiography ; Harvest Lingo Lionel Fogarty , 2022 selected work poetry
Horses for Courses : Geraldine Brooks’s Highbrow Detective Story Peter Craven , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 444 2022; (p. 40-41)

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel

'Horse? Could that title sound familiar because it was a Richard Harris movie of the 1960s? Well, Geraldine Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for March (2005) and author of novels about everything from the characters in Little Women to the life of King David, is not one to be deterred by daunting precedents. She is a senior journalist who has gone on to use her capacity to master information and then spin it to spectacular effect in order to tell a story in which historical data and its artful arrangement yield an effect that is epical because of the way a many-voiced choir animates the chorales that underline the Passion that is dramatised.'(Introduction)   

‘Propulsive’, ‘Evocative’, ‘Brilliant’ : The Best Australian Books Out in June Steph Harmon , Bec Kavanagh , Sophie Black , Michael Sun , Sian Cain , Beejay Silcox , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 1 June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel ; Our Members Be Unlimited Sam Wallman , 2022 single work graphic novel non-fiction ; Basin Scott McCulloch , 2022 single work novel ; An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life Paul Dalla Rosa , 2022 selected work short story ; Talking About a Revolution Yassmin Abdel-Magied , 2022 selected work essay ; Pomegranate and Fig Zaheda Ghani , 2022 single work novel ; Dirt Town Hayley Scrivenor , 2022 single work novel ; The Eulogy Jackie Bailey , 2022 single work novel
In ‘Horse,’ Geraldine Brooks Sets a Consideration of Race at the Track Alexandra Jacobs , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 7 June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel
Horse by Geraldine Brooks Review – A Confident Novel of Racing and Race Beejay Silcox , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 10 June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel
Geraldine Brooks Horse Stephen Romei , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 18-24 June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel

'It is a truth universally acknowledged that journalists start their careers in unexpected places. For Sydney-born Geraldine Brooks it was compiling the horse-racing results for the then Fairfax press. Some decades, five novels and an unexpected lunchtime conversation later, Brooks has made the main character of her new novel a champion American thoroughbred from the mid-19th century.' (Introduction)

Geraldine Brooks’s Horse Is a Richly Detailed Examination of the Violence of America’s Past Anne Pender , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 10 June 2022;

— Review of Horse : A Novel Geraldine Brooks , 2022 single work novel

In a letter accompanying the advance copy of her latest novel, Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks reveals the inspiration for Horse.

Narratives of the Natural World : Fashioning Stories about Nature Robert Zhao Renhui, Carody Culver Carody Culver (interviewer), 2023 single work interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , no. 82 2023;

'For Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Geraldine Brooks, history is rich with stories and characters that can illuminate the complexities of human experience. At the centre of her most recent novel, Horse, is a particularly famous four-legged figure: Lexington, the legendary American racehorse. But part of what led Brooks to this story – and the complex layers of injustice that lay beneath it – was her own late introduction to horseriding. In this conversation with Griffith Review Editor Carody Culver, Brooks shares the genesis and evolution of her relationship with man’s second-best friend.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 21 Jun 2024 09:48:52
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  • Kentucky,
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    United States of America (USA),
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    Americas,
  • New York (City), New York (State),
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    United States of America (USA),
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    Americas,
  • Washington DC,
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  • 1850
  • 1954
  • 2019
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