Genre Fiction
“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 . . . [the] best horse
book I’ve ever read.” —Jane Smiley, The New York Times Book ReviewA
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
historyKentucky, 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 glamor of any racetrack. New
York City, 1954. 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. 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, Horse is a novel of art and
science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism. Read more

 

Genre Literary Fiction