Biography
Born September 14, 1955, Geraldine Brooks is a native of Sydney, Australia, who grew up in its inner-west suburb of Ashfield. Her father, Lawrie Brooks, was an American big-band singer stranded in Adelaide when his manager absconded with the band's pay.
He decided to remain in Australia, and became a newspaper sub-editor. Her mother Gloria, from Boorowa, was a public relations officer with radio station 2GB in Sydney.
She attended Bethlehem College, a secondary school for girls, and the University of Sydney. Following graduation, she was a rookie reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and, after winning a Greg Shackleton Memorial Scholarship, moved to the US, completing a master's degree at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1983.
Biography
The following year, in the Southern France artisan village of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, she married American journalist Tony Horwitz and converted to Judaism.
As a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, she covered crises in Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. The stories from the Persian Gulf that she and her husband reported in 1990 received the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for "Best Newspaper or Wire Service Reporting from Abroad."
In 2006, she was awarded a fellowship at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
She has two sons with her husband Tony Horwitz, Nathaniel and Bizu. Tony died suddenly in 2019 while away on a book tour.
She now lives with a dog named Bear and a mare named Valentine by an old mill pond on Martha’s Vineyard and spends as much time as she can in Australia. In 2016, she was named an Officer in the Order of Australia.
Publications
Brooks' first book (non fiction), Nine Parts of Desire (1994), based on her experiences among Muslim women in the Middle East, was an international bestseller, translated into 17 languages.
Foreign Correspondence (also non fiction) (1997), which won the Nita Kibble Literary Award for women's writing, was a memoir and travel adventure about a childhood enriched by pen pals from around the world, and her adult quest to find them.
Her first novel, Year of Wonders, published in 2001, became an international bestseller. Set in 1666, the story depicts a young woman's battle to save fellow villagers as well as her own soul when the bubonic plague suddenly strikes her small Derbyshire village.
Her next novel, March (2005), was inspired by her fondness for Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, which her mother had given her. To connect that memorable reading experience to her status in 2002 as an American citizen, she researched the Civil War historical setting of Little Women and created a chronicle of wartime service for the "absent father" of the March girls.
Some aspects of this chronicle were informed by the life and philosophical writings of the Alcott family patriarch, Amos Bronson Alcott, whom she profiled under the title "Orpheus at the Plough,“ in the January 10, 2005 issue of The New Yorker, a month before March was published.
The parallel novel received a mixed reaction from critics, but was nonetheless selected in December 2005 by the Washington Post as one of the five best fiction works published that year, and in April 2006, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She was eligible for the prize by virtue of her American citizenship, and was the first Australian to win the prize.
In her next novel, People of the Book (2008), Brooks explored a fictionalized history of the Sarajevo Haggadah. This novel was inspired by her reporting (for The New Yorker) of human interest stories emerging in the aftermath of the 1991–95 breakup of Yugoslavia. The novel won both the Australian Book of the Year Award and the Australian Literary Fiction Award in 2008.
Her 2011 novel Caleb's Crossing is inspired by the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a Wampanoag convert to Christianity who was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College, in the seventeenth century.
The Secret Chord (2015) is an historical novel based on the life of the biblical King David in the Second Iron Age.
Publications
Published in 2022, Horse is an historical novel based upon the race horse Lexington. For almost a century, his bones had been kept stored and mostly forgotten in a fourth-floor attic of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Until it was once again discovered and moved to the Museum of the Horse in Lexington Kentucky. More importantly, the novel tells the story of the Black trainers, riders, and stablemen forgotten by history. It quickly became a New York Times Best Seller and won the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction.
Coming in 2025, Memorial Days. Geraldine Brooks' long, happy marriage came to a sudden end when Tony Horwitz died suddenly while on a book tour in 2019. For three years, she struggled to make sense of life without him, trapped in a sorrow she couldn't express. Determined to find the time and space to grieve, she travelled to a shack on a remote island. There, alone, she revisited a wonderful marriage and an unfathomable loss.
Publications
Each year since 1959, Australia’s national broadcaster invites a prominent Australian to reflect on major issues in a series of radio talks. In her series of four lectures, The Idea of Home: Boyer Lectures 2011, published by ABC Books, Geraldine Brooks considers the layered meanings of “home.”
The first lecture, "Our Only Home," is a plea for Australia to exercise its potential as custodian of a huge landmass and a critical share of the world’s oceans to become a leader in the fight to combat climate change.
The final lecture, "A Home in Fiction," unfurls her thinking on the art of the novel.
Book clasps
In Medieval times, it was crucial that manuscripts have strong buckles and effective clasps to keep book covers tightly closed (under pressure) thus preventing the parchment pages from expanding and buckling. Some clasps were made of leather, others from metal . . . some had hinged, hook, or over-the-peg clasps.
A book clasp is a leather or metal element attached to the medieval and early modern book covers, used to protect the book from the penetration of dust and light.
Videos
How many stories does one book tell?
Hannah, writing an article, describes this book:
I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it. I wanted it to be a gripping narrative, even suspenseful. So I wrote and rewrote certain sections of historical background to use as seasoning between the discussion of technical issues. I tried to give a sense of the Convivencia, of poetry parties on summer nights in beautiful formal gardens, of Arabic-speaking Jews mixing freely with Muslim and Christian neighbors. Although I couldn’t know the story of the scribe or the illuminator, I tried to give a sense of each of them by explaining the details of their crafts and what medieval pavilions of the book were like and where such artisans fitted into the social milieu. (pp. 264-65)
The book opens with Hanna at a bank in Sarajevo. She's introduced to Ozren Karaman, kustos and chief librarian of the National Museum. He is the Haggadah's most recent savior, putting it in a bank vault during the recent bombing.
Hanna inspects the book and finds a white hair, salt, wine stains, and the wing of an unknown insect. These two people, and these clues, form the structure of the novel. They are, so to speak, its binding.
Cast of characters (present)
Hanna Heath (Sharansky)
Hanna is an Australian book conservator summoned by the UN to Sarajevo in the spring of 1996 to trace the history of an ancient Jewish Haggadah, the Sarajevo Haggadah, found in the basement of the battle scarred national museum.
Although a well-educated woman, respected for her knowledge and expertise, she struggles with chronic self-doubt based on her relationship with her mother, Sarah, a famous neurosurgeon who questions her daughter’s choices.
Hanna is a bit sarcastic, a little emotionally distant, but deeply loyal to her work and the people she loves. While investigating the Haggadah, she experiences a crisis when she learns the identity of her father, the famous painter Aaron Sharansky, about whom her mother never provided any information.
Ultimately, Hanna decides to take her father’s name and distance herself from her mother. Her professional confidence shaken when she claims the Haggadah in the museum is a forgery, she accepts a position with the Sharansky Foundation, but is vindicated when she learns that the Haggadah was in fact a forgery, a near-perfect fake, executed by Werner Heinrich, her teacher and Hebrew manuscript specialist, and facilitated by Ozren Karaman, Chief Librarian of the museum.
Cast of characters--present
Dr. Sarah Heath
Sarah, Hanna's mother, is a skilled neurosurgeon at the top of her field. She is critical of her daughter's career choice, and generally standoffish and secretive. Sarah believes that the reason she behaves the way she does is because she had to fight to advance in her career, arguing that she is a feminist warrior who is paving the way for nurses and female doctors who deserve to be treated with respect.
When she is injured in a car crash, with her mother in law Delilah Sharansky, Sarah tells Hanna the story of her father, famous artist, losing his sight from a brain tumor, when she was four months pregnant with Hanna. Although a neuro surgeon herself, she did not perform the surgery, but watched, saw the bleed that ultimately killed Adam.
Cast of characters—present
Delilah Sharansky, Hannah's Jewish grandmother, driving the car when she has an accident, dies, and Hanna's mother is injured in the crash. Ultimately Delilah leaves to Hannah, not Sarah, her father's legacy and paintings, and offers her the opportunity to take his place on the board.
Aaron Sharansky is Hannah's father and Delilah's son. A painter who is losing his sight to a brain tumor. He has surgery, but dies from complications, when Sarah is four-months pregnant with Hannah.
Ozren Karaman--Chief librarian of the National Museum in Sarajevo, who saved the Haggadah from the bombing in the 1990s.
Alia—his son, hospitalized in a coma from a gunshot wound during the Bosnian war. Hannah takes his brain scans to her mother, a neurosurgeon, who diagnoses the case as futile. Alia later dies.
Late in the novel, Hannah discovers it's Ozren she loves.
Cast of characters—present
Werner Heinrich
Hannah's teacher, the Viennese specialist in Hebrew manuscripts. He's the one who creates the forgery
Amalie Sutter—entomologist in Vienna—Hannah goes to her for information about the butterfly wing she has found in the book's binding.
Razmus Kanaha, chief conservation scientist at the Fogg museum, studies wine and blood stains
Clarissa Montague-Morgan, forensic specialist who examines hair
Cast of characters—1480
Zahra bint Ibrahim al-Tarek (African Muslim)
Although the child of an important man, she was kidnapped from a hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) and sold into bondage at age 14 to Hooman, master of a calligraphy studio in Seville.
Her father had been a physician and she painted plants and herbs for his books. So Hooman tested her painting ability by asking her to create a scene on a grain of rice, which she failed, but he then put her to work on images, people, at which she excelled.
When he got a request from the emir for a portrait of his wife to take into battle, she was selected, but raped when he discovered she was a girl, disguised as a boy. Hooman drops her off, with some pigments, gold and silver foil, for painting.
She paints the Nura (Christian name Isabella), captured by the emir, and they become friends. Her name here is al-Mora, or the Muslim woman. When that kingdom is threatened, Nura, who is pregnant, moves into hiding in a convent that will protect her and her unborn child.
Al-Mora, and Nura's brother Pedro are sent to Nura's Jewish doctor, Netanel ha-Levi. The doctor treats her well, and Pedro, who is supposed to be her apprentice, becomes instead friend and servant to the doctor's deaf-mute son Benjamin.
Cast of characters—1480
Zahra bint Ibrahim al-Tarek (Christian name Isabella)
Although she had been al-Mora, the doctor restores her given name, teaches her about Jewish history and customs, and includes her in his family life.
Using the last of Hooman's pigments, she paints the illustrations of the Haggadah for Benjamin, so that he can experience the stories, and includes herself in the corner of the seder image (the dark-skinned woman wearing a saffron dress), even signing her name with the single-strand, cat's hair brush she got from Hooman.
Ultimately, Ben Shooshan buys the illustrations in the Haggadah from a deaf-mute in the market.
Cast of characters—Tarragona 1492
David Ben Shoushan
Hebrew scribe who wrote the Haggadah intended as a gift for his nephew; beaten to death by Spanish soldiers
Miriam, his wife
Rueben, their son, who converted to Christianity when he married Rosa; tortured and killed by the Inquisition
Ruti, David and Miriam's daughter. She takes Rosa’s son and converts him into a Jew by immersion; saltwater gets on the Haggadah which she's carrying as she escapes
Rosa, Reuben's wife, believes her son is still-born
Cast of characters—Venice 1609
Giovanni Domenico Vistorini is a parish priest and book censor. He was an orphan, adopted by monks in Venice at age six, whose skill with languages made him the perfect candidate to become censor for the Inquisition. He is friends with Rabbi Judah Aryeh, who brings the Haggadah to him for approval.
Rabbi Judah Aryeh has a gambling addiction. fled Portugal as a Jew, ostensibly converted to Christianity. He is a supporter of the Geto community who received the Haggadah from family manservant in Portugal.
The Rabbi has asked Dona Reyna de Serena, for money for his congregation. She is a Jew pretending to be Christian to live a free life. Dona Reyna asks the rabbi to get the Haggadah approved by the censor, so she can leave Venice. The rabbi agrees. He then uses Carnivale, the festival of masks, to hide his Jewish identity and gamble the Dona’s money away. He is found out as a Jew and must flee.
Vistorini initially argued that the images rather than the text of the Haggadah violated Catholic belief, but later signs, after too much wine, and acknowledges that his ancestry is Jewish as well.
Cast of characters—Vienna 1894
Franz Hirschfeldt
Jewish doctor who treats Viennese aristocrats although not invited to their salons
David, his brother is an expert fencer, Rosalind in his mistress
Herr Florien Mittl
book binder who has worked with the museum for a number of years, including the Haggadah.
But he has late-stage syphilis and steals the sterling clasps to pay for expensive medical treatment. He dies of arsenic poisoning, the treatment for syphilis; Hirschfeldt is tried for murder but not convicted. He has the clasps remade into earrings for his mistress.
Frau Zweig finds a photo with a pair of earrings made from the book clasps. She knows Werner, which is why Hannah contacts her.
Cast of characters—Vienna 1940
Lola
Appears both early and late in the novel. In the beginning, she is the Jewish daughter of a janitor Lugo and laundress Rashelo, who have to flee when the Nazis round up Jews. Dora is her little sister.
She flees and goes into the mountains where the Partisans run resistance efforts. Isak, the pharmacist's son is there, with his little sister Ina. Ultimately he carries her, walks into the stream, and they both drown.
When the Partisan group is disbanded, she goes back to Sarajevo to the building where her father once worked, and his friend there Sava takes her to Stela and Serif Kamal.
Late in the novel, she's the one who finds the real Haggadah, hidden among other books
Josip Boscovic, museum director
Cast of characters—Vienna 1940
Stela and Serif Kamal
wealthy Muslims who hide Lola and save Haggadah. As we know from the New Yorker article, they are based on Dervis and Servet Korkut; in her research, Geraldine Brooks talked with Servet.
In the book Serif, the museum director, hides the Haggadah in his clothes, lies to the German officer come to confiscate it, and takes it home with him, later hiding it in a mosque up in the hills outside Sarajevo. Once the war is over, the book is returned.
The couple later hide the young Jewish girl, Lola, disguised as a servant helping to take care of their baby, Munib who has an interest in butterflies and later becomes an assistant in the museum of national history. When he is looking at the Haggadah, a piece of butterfly wing drops into it.
Videos
GBH Forum
The Author's Outlet
What to discuss Book Club
Bryant Book Corner
APB Speakers
Interview, PBS News Hour
Question for discussion
The story line that holds the novel together is Hannah's, and during her timeline Hannah goes through some remarkable problems and transformations within her personal life as the novel progresses, metaphorically her life parallels the history of the Haggadah itself.
What do you think of Hannah? Her mother? Her new-found family? Her career choices? How have these dire events re-shaped Hannah?
Question for discussion
Several of the novel’s female characters lived in the prefeminist era and certainly fared poorly at the hands of men. Does the fact that she was pushing for gender equality—not to mention saving lives—justify Sarah Heath’s poor parenting skills? Would women’s rights be where they are today if it weren’t for women like her?
Questions for discussion
According to one reviewer, most of the male characters in this novel play background roles to the most dominant female characters. The only exception is Ozren, and he is hard to grasp because his position puts him under constant stress. His wife has died, his son is seriously wounded and ultimately dies, and yet he seems attract Hannah's interest. How do you see him?
Is there another male character who stands out in this book?
Question for discussion
There is an amazing array of “people of the book”—both base and noble—whose lifetimes span some remarkable periods in human history. Who is your favorite and why?
Questions for discussion—quotes
. . . the Haggadah came to Sarajevo for a reason. It was here to test us, to see if there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox. (p. 361)
The cat-hair brushes are typical of Iranian miniatures, and "yet these miniatures [in the Haggadah] were not all Iranian in style or technique. So why had an illuminator working in Spain, for a Jewish client, in the manner of a European Christian, have used an Iranian paintbrush? . . . It had given me [Hannah] an excuse to riff on the way knowledge had traveled amazing distances during the Convivencia, over well-established routes linking the artists and intellectuals of Spain with their counterparts in Baghdad, Cairo, and Isphalan. (p. 320)
What do you take away from this book?
Questions for discussion
A source identifies a theme in this book as "self preservation versus historical preservation." When Hanna introduces herself to Ozren (p. 17) she states her theory on preservation, saying:
“To restore a book to the way it was when it was made is to lack respect for its history.”
Hanna argues for a kind of preservation that maintains the imperfections, intricacies, and unique markings of its history—essentially, to allow the object to acquire its own identity and remain true to that identity, even if it means it will be less beautiful or ornate.
Note: this is the Japanese concept of kintsugi, allied to the theory about "women of a certain age."
Questions for discussion
There is a similar theme in the novel around what it means to preserve the self—to live as one’s true self. Zahra is a perfect example of this struggle—though she has a happy life with the doctor, she is not free or in her own home, and so she is not happy:
“Freedom, indeed, is the main part of what I lack now in this place where I have honorable work, and comfort enough. Yet it is not my own country” (316).
So, what is self-preservation in this novel? For Hannah, and for others?
Next Week
Background on papers for Jewish children during WWII