David’s remarkable journey from shepherd boy to king

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, by Geraldine Brooks is a vivid story of faith, family, desire and power that brings David magnificently alive.

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.

Geraldine Brooks lives in Massachusetts with her husband, author Tony Horwitz, and their two sons.

The Secret Chord, by Geraldine Brooks, is published by Hachette Australia. Click here to purchase from Dymocks.