Grief didn’t come easily to novelist Geraldine Brooks.

When her husband, journalist and author Tony Horowitz, died of a cardiac event on a Washington, D.C., sidewalk, she was stunned. He was only 60. What happened?

But she didn’t have time to mourn, seeing as her boys needed support, her books needed writing, the world needed answers.

As she describes in her new book, “Memorial Days,” it took her three years to recognize she was operating on autopilot, disassociated from her life and her body due to unrealized grief. So she traveled home to Australia and forced herself into solitude to relive the worst days of her life and finally give her grief sway.

This week, Brooks joined host Kerri Miller on Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about what happened next.

Guest:

• Geraldine Brooks is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author. Her new memoir is “Memorial Days.”

Audio book excerpts courtesy Penguin Audio.

Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.