{"id":167143,"date":"2022-06-15T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T00:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=167143"},"modified":"2022-06-17T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T04:31:17","slug":"read-a-qa-with-geraldine-brooks-on-her-new-novel-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2022\/06\/15\/read-a-qa-with-geraldine-brooks-on-her-new-novel-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Read a Q&A with Geraldine Brooks on her new novel, Horse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Geraldine<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Born and raised in Sydney, Geraldine Brooks is author of six novels and three works of non-fiction, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner, March, and bestsellers such as People of the Book and Year of Wonders. For more than a decade she was a reporter, working first for the Sydney Morning Herald and then for The Wall Street Journal, covering crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Geraldine Brooks is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her new novel, Horse<\/a><\/strong>. Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
\"Headshot<\/a>

Geraldine Brooks<\/p><\/div>\n

Please tell us about your book, Horse<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> It\u2019s a braided narrative, set in three time periods. The spine of the novel is based on the true story of Lexington, the most remarkable American racehorse of the 19th century, noted not only for his blistering speed but also for siring more champions than any other thoroughbred. An actual missing painting of the horse and his groom inspired the second thread of the story, which takes us to the roiling contemporary art world of mid 20th century New York, where painters like Pollock and DeKooning were redefining aesthetics. Finally, there is a contemporary story based on the science around the study of the horse\u2019s skeleton at the Smithsonian Institution in present-day Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n

Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> I happened to meet the Smithsonian official who was transporting Lexington\u2019s skeleton from DC to the International Museum of the Horse in Kentucky, where it is now centre of an exhibit on the history of thoroughbred racing. What he told me, about the horse\u2019s career and his fate in the Civil War, was simply riveting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What appealed to you about exploring America\u2019s legacy of enslavement and racism through the lens of horseracing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> I did not set out with that in my mind at all. I just wanted to tell the story of a remarkable horse. But when I learned that much of the horse\u2019s training and care was in the hands of enslaved or formerly enslaved Black horsemen, whose plundered skills built the thriving thoroughbred industry of the 19th century, I knew the novel couldn\u2019t just be about a racehorse, but would also have to be about the unfinished story of race and injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book takes place across three different cities and time periods. What\u2019s your approach to writing a multi-stranded narrative like Horse<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> The hardest part is learning how each story will connect with the others, and this only becomes clear gradually, as you let each narrative, with its own characters and tensions develop as they must. It\u2019s a bit of an act of faith, that the stories will ultimately reveal a natural point of intersection. It\u2019s quite nerve-wracking, until they finally do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I knew the novel couldn\u2019t just be about a racehorse, but would also have to be about the unfinished story of race and injustice.’<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> I always wanted to be a newspaper reporter and I loved that career. It teaches valuable lessons about writing to hold a reader\u2019s attention and writing under any circumstances, just getting it done. These were useful when I turned to fiction after my first child was born and I no longer wanted to be traveling on long assignments to often-dangerous places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you love the most about writing fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> The way it requires you to extend your empathy, to consider alternate points of view born of different beliefs and life experiences. It\u2019s a kind of calisthenics for the soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the last book you read and loved?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> The Overstory<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Richard Powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope readers will discover in Horse?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB: <\/strong>I would never presume to say. The magic of fiction, I think, is that readers will each have a unique connection with a novel. It\u2019s impossible for me to predict what that connection might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what\u2019s up next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GB:<\/strong> Shhh! That\u2019s still a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks Geraldine!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Horse<\/a> <\/em>by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia) is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘The magic of fiction, I think, is that readers will each have a unique connection with a novel.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":167149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6676],"tags":[715,723,1974,2187,2313,14247,4383],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/GeraldineBrooks-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167143"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167939,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167143\/revisions\/167939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}