Review: THE SECRET CHORD, Geraldine Brooks

• Not due for publication until October 6, 2015
• source: e-ARC via publisher (Hatchette) at NetGalley

Synopsis (Net Galley)

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, YEAR OF WONDERS and MARCH comes a unique and vivid novel that retells the story of King David's extraordinary rise to power and fall from grace.

1000 BC. The Second Iron Age. The time of King David.

Anointed as the chosen one when just a young shepherd boy, David will rise to be king, grasping the throne and establishing his empire. But his journey is a tumultuous one and the consequences of his choices will resound for generations. In a life that arcs from obscurity to fame, he is by turns hero and traitor, glamorous young tyrant and beloved king, murderous despot and remorseful, diminished patriarch. His wives love and fear him, his sons will betray him. It falls to Natan, the courtier and prophet who both counsels and castigates David, to tell the truth about the path he must take.

With stunning originality, acclaimed author Geraldine Brooks offers us a compelling portrait of a morally complex hero from this strange age - part legend, part history. Full of drama and richly drawn detail, THE SECRET CHORD is a vivid story of faith, family, desire and power that brings David magnificently alive.

My Take

Note - this book is not crime fiction, although without doubt crimes are committed.
Reading it is part of my quest to widen what I read: to go beyond crime fiction.
I have already read the Pulitzer Prize winning PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by the same author.

When I was a child I had a jigsaw puzzle that showed a young, handsome David slaying Goliath of Gath with his slingshot. That image of David, son of Jesse of Bethlehem, ancestor of Jesus Christ and the reason why he was born in Bethlehem, has stayed with me for well over 60 years. But the picture of David in THE SECRET CHORD is a long way from the sanitised image of my jigsaw puzzle.

The description and account of David in THE SECRET CHORD is seen through the eyes of Natan, David's courtier who at times has prophesied events in David's life, and been at his side for decades.  David has commissioned Natan to interview his mother and other family members to learn about the early events of David's life. The king will decide how much of what Natan writes down will be revealed. Natan is well aware that he is treading a dangerous line: the king is volatile and could well turn against him, and his family are not going to be willing to reveal deep secrets willingly.

Eventually we learn David's life history, taking us right through to the declaration of his heir. According to the author "David is the first man in literature whose story is told in detail from early childhood to extreme old age." I was staggered at how violent his life was, how much time was spent in waging war, and how his family almost self-combusted.

A fascinating read.

My rating: 4.5

About the author
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.
Geraldine Brooks lives in Massachusetts with her husband, author Tony Horwitz, and their two sons.

Review: PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, Geraldine Brooks

• read as Kindle version
• originally published in 2008
• winner of at least two awards
• Australian author

Synopsis (Amazon)

When Hanna Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript that has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of war-torn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime.
A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring the Sarajevo Haggadah -- a Jewish prayer book -- to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival. But the trip will also set in motion a series of events that threaten to rock Hanna′s orderly life, including her encounter with Ozren Karamen, the young librarian who risked his life to save the book.

As meticulously researched as all of Brooks′ previous work, People of the Book is a gripping and moving novel about war, art, love and survival.

My Take

I read PEOPLE OF THE BOOK following a recommendation/reminder from a member of one of the face to face book discussion groups I attend.

I need to tell you first that it is not crime fiction although some horrendous crimes are committed, particularly those related to the expulsion and elimination of Jewish populations throughout history. So the book also fits in with my personal challenge to occasionally read outside the crime fiction genre.

Although Geraldine Brooks no longer lives in Australia, where she was born, she manages to flavour the novel with Australian idioms and captures familiar characteristics with her central character Hanna Heath.

Hanna works back in time to piece together the history of the Sarajevo Haggadah from physical evidence left within the book itself. The reader learns the full, fictitious, story of the people who either created, preserved or protected the book, while Hanna herself can only surmise the bare bones. The book is Jewish and so much of the story is related to the persecution of the Jews over a period of nearly six centuries and the relationships between Muslim, Christian and Jewish rulers and populations. That makes it a very topical book even to the present day, and a reminder that human lives are involved in military campaigns. It also points out the sacrifices people make to preserve items that are culturally valuable.

Hannah wants to write a paper about the possible history of the Haggadah and in her pursuit of evidence learns a lot about herself, and, eventually her own family background, secrets her mother has kept from her for thirty years.

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed my trip outside my preferred genre. The writing is superb and the story moves at a good pace. I guess at the end you could say it becomes a thriller as Hanna learns of the latest crime that has been committed in the name of the book.

My rating: 4.8

Geraldine Brooks' other novels
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (2001)
March (2005)
People of the Book (2008)
Caleb's Crossing (2011)

Adelaide Writers Week program available online

See 2012 information

The program for Adelaide writers Week 2-7 March 2008 is available online at http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/library/WWTimetable.pdf

You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader 8 to read it - if opening the pdf stalls on your computer then the likely answer is that you need to update your Acrobat Reader.
You can do that easily by going to http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/reader/ and choosing the Download option.

So what do I think of the program?
On the first day, 2 March, Sunday Crimes - a 90 minute session with Thomas Cook, Peter Corris, and Denise Mina looks right up my alley.

But on the next day, 3 March, I have to make a choice between Dorothy Porter and Peter Carey (the latter will probably win)
There's a session called Window on Scotland with James Meek and Denise Mina.
And then a couple of sessions in the afternoon including Peter Corris.

Day 3
A book launch with Peter Carey
But who set Thomas Cook and Denise Mina on at the same time? grrr..........
Not really much more on that day for this little duck.

Day 4
A session with Ian McEwan at the beginning of the day.
And later in the day a session that includes Geraldine Brooks looks good.

Day 5
All looks a bit cultural for me - maybe I'll have a day home just reading

Day 6, last day, 7 March
Meet the author Marshall Browne looks good
But what klutz makes me choose between Gabrielle Lord and Garry Disher??
But then at the end of the day we get all 3 in a panel session, so I guess I'll be happy.

However with 2 timetable clashes of crime genre writers, can't help feeling it could have been done better.

Just need nice weather now - not a lot of hope of rain so we should be ok there. It can be hot in March though.