Horse: A Novel
Geraldine BrooksA discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, & the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, & injustice across US history
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret & a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion & his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
NY City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a 19th-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, & Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power & endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art & science, love & obsession, & our unfinished reckoning with racism.
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“A testament to the intelligence & humanity of animals, a stinging rebuke of racist & abusive humans, & a study of how the past gets recorded, remembered, & remade . . . anyone who ever grew up loving horses, anyone who dearly loves an animal, will find a cornucopia of riches in this novel.” —Boston Globe
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Brooks is the author of March