WORD Christchurch and Bookenz, in association with Hachette NZ, are proud to present an evening with Pulitzer prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks, in conversation with Morrin Rout.

With more than two million copies of her novels sold, Australian-American author and journalist Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. She has 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 for fiction for her novel March, which imagines the life of the patriarch of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, who leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War.

Brooks’ new novel, The Secret Chord, takes on one of literature’s richest and most enigmatic figures: King David, a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in 1000 BC Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.

Full of drama and richly drawn detail, The Secret Chord is a vivid story of faith, family, desire and power that brings David magnificently alive.

geraldinebrooks.com