Geraldine Brooksová

Kniha Stvořitelé a spasitelé (2008) je strhující, velkoryse rozvržený román o spletitém putování iluminovaného židovského rukopisu napříč pěti staletími. Poté, co se objeví v troskách válkou zničeného Sarajeva, dostane se k mladé australské restaurátorce vzácných knih Haně Heathové, která zcela propadne jeho kouzlu a na základě nepatrných materiálních stop zachovaných v jeho staré vazbě postupně s pomocí řady dalších specialistů objasňuje jeho četná tajemství. Příběh, inspirovaný skutečnými okolnostmi spojenými s nalezením tzv. Sarajevské hagady, zavede čtenáře do středověkého Španělska, Benátek inkviziční éry, Vídně přelomu století až po Sarajevo obsazené nacisty. Brooksová bravurně evokuje jednotlivá prostředí a barvitě líčí mnohdy pohnuté osudy této ojedinělé knihy a lidí kolem ní, to vše s nevídaným dramatickým talentem – ne náhodou ji jeden kritik popsal jako „Dana Browna v sukních“.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 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 takes him 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. Brooks has an uncanny ability to hear and transform characters from history, and this beautifully written, unvarnished saga of faith, desire, family, ambition, betrayal, and power will enthral her many fans.

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 tells a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history Kentucky, 1850. 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. 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 and his groom, very far from the glamour of any racetrack. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a 19th equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. 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. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America's greatest stud sire, Horse is an original ,gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.