What was it like to herd sheep on a hot afternoon in the Judean hills? My younger son and I went and did it. Others had to be answered experientially. How did tribal power work? What did people eat? How did they fight? What would they have known about the wider world? Archaeology and ancient history answered many of these questions. I started with the period itself, the Second Iron Age, to discover as much as I could about the context for a leader like David. How did you research and prepare to write THE SECRET CHORD? But who was this warrior-poet-musician, this lover and killer, who experiences every human joy and every human heartbreak? I went back to the bible to look for him, and found that the best stories from his life are the least told ones. He’s ubiquitous, after all: a cliché in our language (how many contests are David and Goliath battles?) gorgeously depicted throughout the history of Western art the psalms attributed to him sung in churches and synagogues across millennia. (I’d been braced for drums, so I didn’t actually resist the choice.) Watching him, dwarfed by his teacher’s gorgeous concert instrument, I began to think about that other long ago boy harpist, the shepherd who became a king. When my son was about nine years old, he made the unusual decision to learn to play the harp. 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.What interests you most about King David? How did you decide to write a novel about him? 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. It falls to Natan, the courtier and prophet who both counsels and castigates David, to tell the truth about the path he must take. His wives love and fear him, his sons will betray him. 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. But his journey is a tumultuous one and the consequences of his choices will resound for generations. The time of King David.Īnointed as the chosen one when just a young shepherd boy, David will rise to be king, grasping the throne and establishing his empire.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, YEAR OF WONDERS and MARCH comes a unique and vivid novel that retells the story of King David's extraordinary rise to power and fall from grace.ġ000 BC.
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