Hardback
published by Hachette Australia,
The Sydney Morning Herald (2015) wrote:
Murderer, rapist, adulterer and tyrant are not the usual Sunday School epithets attributed to David, the shepherd boy from the Bible who slew the Philistine giant, Goliath, and grew up to become King of Israel.
David the youth has become a metaphor for improbable victory, but the real story, as revealed in the books of Samuel, is of a flawed adult whose lust for power and beautiful women (and men) led to the devastation of his family and a remorseful end.
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks tells the story of David, the biblical king of Israel.
Realising that a drama with such intrigue and misadventure is a gift for a novelist, Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Australian journalist-turned-author, has fleshed out this biblical story in her latest novel The Secret Chord.
Set 1000 years before Christ, Brooks' story reimagines David's life as told through the voice of his prophet, Natan.
Using the spellings from the Hebrew in the Tanakh, the Jewish sacred text - so Nathan is Natan, Saul is Shaul, Solomon is Shlomo, etc - Brooks allows Natan, and his divine visions, to create a portrait of a king from Natan's talks with key figures who know David.
Each perspective adds to the whole and includes Shaul, the first king of a united Israel and Judah, David's wives Avigail (Abigail), Mikhal (Michal) and Batsheva (Bathsheba), the mother of David's youngest son, Shlomo (who succeeds David as king), and Natan himself.
Product Code: BK205GB
