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About the Book

About the Book

Memorial Days: A Memoir

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of  HORSE.

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz --- just 60 years old --- collapsed and died.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha’s Vineyard. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Three years later, she flew to a remote island off the coast of Australia to finally give herself time to mourn.

A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, MEMORIAL DAYS is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony and mystery of life.

Audiobook available, read by Geraldine Brooks

Memorial Days: A Memoir
by Geraldine Brooks

  • Publication Date: April 28, 2026
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • ISBN-10: 0593654005
  • ISBN-13: 9780593654002