The Secret Chord

Electronic book text

The Australian Bestseller

A unique and vivid novel that brings to life the story of King David's extraordinary rise to power and fall from grace, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of People of the Book, Year of Wonders and March.

'Geraldine Books is a master at bringing the past alive' - The Washington Post

'A skilful reimagining ... gracefully and intelligently told' - Kirkus Reviews

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.

'Brooks evokes time and place with keenly drawn detail ... with the verve of an adroit storyteller ... Ambitious and psychologically astute' - Publishers Weekly

'In her gorgeously written novel of ambition, courage, retribution and triumph, Brooks imagines the life and character of King David ... the novel feels simultaneously ancient,accessible and timeless' - Booklist

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.

Brooks lives in Massachusetts with her husband, author Tony Horwitz, and their two son

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