HORSE

For readers of Barbara Kingsolver, Jane Smiley, and Alice Hoffman; for lovers of sweeping historical fiction and books about iconic racehorses like Seabiscuit and Secretariat: HORSE tells the story of 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 19th 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 horseone 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, who became America's greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.

This novel combines the behind-the-scenes curatorial work and the investigation into the mysterious provenance of an artwork from People of the Book with the inquiry into issues of race, war and idealism that she explored in her 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March. Brooks' five previous novels have been acclaimed by reviewers across the country for their narrative and emotional power, superb detail, deep authenticity, and her intuitive sense of the daily lives of the characters she writes about.

Geraldine Brooks is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March and the international bestsellers The Secret Chord, Caleb's Crossing, People of the Book, and Year of Wonders. She has also written the acclaimed nonfiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. Born and raised in Australia, Brooks lives in Massachusetts.