In the forty-eighth episode of GREAT PODVERSATIONS, author GERALDINE BROOKS discusses her book, Horse: A Novel, with best-selling author, and former NPR journalist, JACKI LYDEN.

Geraldine Brooks grew up in Australia and became a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, and later with The Wall Street Journal. Brooks was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2006 for her novel March.

Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism. Historical artifacts related to the legendary thoroughbred serve as the backdrop to this novel. Beginning in 1850 Kentucky, the historic underpinnings of the work are as spellbinding as the characters.

“Whether Brooks is chronicling the history of thoroughbred racing, exploring the impact of the Civil War on African American jockeys, or detailing the nuances of American equestrian art, it is all equally engrossing…Horse will buoy your soul, break your heart, educate your mind…”
-Jane McCormack, The BookBrowse Review

Many of Brooks’ novels and nonfiction books have been New York Times bestsellers. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, is an international best-seller, translated into more than 25 languages. In 2016, Brooks was named an Officer in the Order of Australia.

Jacki Lyden is a former award-winning NPR host and foreign correspondent of over three decades. She is the author of the best-selling memoir, Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, published in twelve countries. A frequent speaker on the topic of mental health, the American Psychiatric Association named her “Patient Advocate of the Year” in 2021. She is also a 2018 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health journalism fellow. She is a proud board member of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center and Writers for Democratic Action, both groups promoting democracy through literature. She founded the “Colton House Writers Retreat” in Arizona in 2019 and the “Love Comes in at the Eye” writers’ workshop in 2017, in Ireland. Lyden is working on a new memoir called Tell Me Something Good, about her life with, and without, radio.

Horse: A Novel  by Geraldine Brooks

Daughter of the Queen of Sheba: A Memoir  by Jacki Lyden

Original air date: 5/12/2023

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