Brooks structures the book like a mystery. has penned a clever and richly detailed novel about how we commodify, commemorate, and quantify winning in the United States, all through the lens of horse racing.' - Library Journal (starred review) ' marvelous novel. Brooks also showcases the magnificent beauty and competitive spirit of Lexington himself.' - Booklist (starred review) 'Brooks probes our understanding of history to reveal the power structures that create both the facts and the fiction. settings are pitch-perfect, and the story brings to life the important roles filled by Black horsemen in America's past. Calling all horse girls: This is the story of the most important racehorse you've never heard of, but it's also so much more than that.' - Good Housekeeping 'With exceptional characterizations, Pulitzer Prize-winner Brooks tells an emotionally impactful tale. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.Īdvance praise for Horse : 'This is historical fiction at its finest, connecting threads of the past with the present to illuminate that essentially human something. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and 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 and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. 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. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South.

best horse book I've ever read.' -Jane Smiley, The New York Times Book Review A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history Kentucky, 1850. 'Brooks' chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling.' - The New York Times Book Review ' Horse isn't just an animal story-it's a moving narrative about race and art.' - TIME 'A revelation.

Geraldine brooks new book