Memorial Days

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

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