
Memorial Days
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Geraldine Brooks
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By:
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Geraldine Brooks
A New York Times Bestseller
“Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. ... Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief.”—Los Angeles Times
“A rich account of marriage and mourning.”—Washington Post
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 sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy–collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.
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. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at the beach. 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 booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony’s death.
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.
©2024 Geraldine Brooks (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
A People Best Book of February 2025
“This intimate memoir of grief is a lifeline to others dealing with loss. ... Intensely intimate and candid ... Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. ... Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief.”—Los Angeles Times
“Brooks wield[s] precise and often beautiful language and, in the most graceful way possible, point[s] a way forward. A rich account of marriage and mourning ... Memorial Days contains much compassionate advice for those who have, or will, suffer the same ferocious blow.”—The Washington Post
“Brooks and her husband, Tony Horwitz, had been reporters in war zones, but nothing prepared her for his sudden death, at just 60, after three decades together. Four years later, she journeyed to a remote island near Tasmania “to do the unfinished work of grieving.” This memoir is her report back, at once a spare accounting of tragic detail and an appreciation of the healing properties of solitude.”—The New York Times Book Review
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Honest portrayal of grief
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Phenomenal, as always by Geraldine Brooks
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Her honesty
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Her grieving work comes through as a roadmap for us all.
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Wonderful, useful, meaningful.
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Lessons in grief
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Healthy Grieving
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A beautiful story
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I like the voice of the reader
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Touching, practical guide to grief
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