Geraldine Brooks was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1955. She started her career working as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and later became a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. She covered crises in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, and this early exposure to diverse cultures and the complexities of human conflict shaped her later literary endeavors. 

Brooks met Tony Horwitz at Columbia University in the United States, where they both attended graduate school for journalism. After graduating in 1984, the two married in France and worked as foreign correspondents for The Wall Street Journal. Sometimes, when sharing the same byline, fellow reporters referred to the couple affectionately as “HoBro”—Brooks believes that this moniker captures the essence of their partnership since they often functioned as one being. Though they approached their work differently, Brooks and Tony supported each other; they shared their work with one another and were each other’s first editors. Their creative and intellectual symbiosis endured throughout their careers.

After the birth of their first child, Brooks wanted to shift her career focus so that she could stay away from conflict zones. Consequently, she began writing her first novel with Tony’s encouragement. Brooks published Year of Wonders in 2001; it is a historical novel set in an English village during the bubonic plague, and the story had intrigued her for years. Her fiction debut was a critical and commercial success, establishing her as a significant voice in historical fiction.

Brooks explores historical themes in her works, displaying her love of research and attention to historical detail. March, her reimagining of Little Women, won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. People of the Book traces the perilous journey of a rare Hebrew manuscript through time and across regions. Caleb’s Crossing recounts the early history of Harvard, exploring identity and cultural collision through the life of its first Indigenous student. The Secret Chord reimagines the biblical King David’s life. 

Brooks began writing Horse before Tony’s death, and the project took on new emotional weight and complexity after his passing. The novel explores the legendary 19th-century racehorse Lexington and his enslaved Black trainer, Jarret. After Tony’s death, Brooks was uncertain if she could finish the book. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced her into lockdown in her Martha’s Vineyard home, she resolved to use the time to finish the book to honor Tony’s memory and the ardent support he gave her work. After completing it, she dedicated Horse to Tony (McKeough, Tim. “Geraldine Brooks on Martha’s Vineyard.” The New York Times, 7 June 2022).