The Secret Chord
On sale
1st September 2016
Price: £9.99
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2016
‘A thundering, gritty, emotionally devastating reconsideration of the story of King David’ New York Times
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016
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 takes him 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.
Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
‘A page turner. . .Brooks is a master at bringing the past alive. . .in her skillful hands the issues of the past echo our own deepest concerns: love and loss, drama and tragedy, chaos and brutality’ Alice Hoffman
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016
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 takes him 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.
Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
‘A page turner. . .Brooks is a master at bringing the past alive. . .in her skillful hands the issues of the past echo our own deepest concerns: love and loss, drama and tragedy, chaos and brutality’ Alice Hoffman
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Reviews
Vividly drawn . . . a beautiful and thoughtful book
Here is a man who is both great and flawed, just like those tragic heroes Oedipus and King Lear. But in making David so satisfyingly human, Brooks has crafted from The Secret Chord a compelling read, contemporary in relevance
The Secret Chord is sensual historical fiction, full of rich descriptive language
A haunting, memorable novel
What Mary Renault did with Alexander the Great, Geraldine Brooks has done with King David: breathed life into an ancient hero. Haunting, exciting and as satisfying
The Secret Chord paints a portrait so layered and rich in detail it makes you feel you can reach out and touch him
This David is ecstatic, visceral and virile