In this wonderful memoir, the author Geraldine Brooks tells the story of her husband's death and how she coped. It begins with the completely unexpected death of her beloved husband, Tony Horowitz, who collapsed on a sidewalk in Washington, DC while he was away from home on a tour to promote his new book. There is so much to attend to afterward, and she goes into even the mundane details, which truly serve to bring everything more to life. At some point, three years later, she decides to return to her native Australia, to a tiny shack on a remote piece of land, alone. For anyone who has ever lost a loved one, or cannot imagine losing a loved one, this is so relatable. I think that grieving people who read this will feel understood and less alone. Her experiences are unique to her, but her thoughts and ideas apply to us all.

MEMORIAL DAYS by Geraldine Brooks (Horse) was both difficult and comforting to read. Brooks wrote it after the totally unexpected death of her husband, Tony Horwitz in 2019. She deftly combines the shock of those first days and weeks with a period three years later when she ventured to Australia to reflect on her grief and their long life together. Having just experienced loss, I was astounded by the astuteness of many of her observations:

On being alone: "What big plans we had. How many more adventures there would be for us..." AND "Now I wrestle the wheelie bag over the rough ground by myself. I let sadness come and accept it. This is how it is now. Lonely."

On family and marriage: "This wobbly trio. It was how we would have to go on. We would have to learn to balance ourselves in an unfamiliar asymmetry. And we would all have to learn to stop setting the table for four." AND "In 35 years Tony and I had settled into an amicable division of labor within the marriage, taking responsibility for the tasks for which each of us had aptitude." She wisely recommends, "Jot down all the tasks you don't bother to mention that keep the household afloat, the set of torches that only you have learned to juggle. All the little things your partner didn't expect to need to know, until the day they never expected to happen."

On how hard it is to find space and time to grieve: "... a cascade of consequences. My credit cards froze, because Tony was the primary card holder. In my gray mist of sadness, I did not want to think about credit cards, but I had to, since our bills were paid that way, and if I didn't immediately get to work on making other arrangements, we mightn't have lights or phones the following month. I knew I was lucky to have the wherewithal to pay those bills. For so many the death of a spouse is also the death of the breadwinner." AND "I was used to seeing my desk covered with notes for my fiction, not legal documents, financial spreadsheets, and baskets of condolence notes." AND "I haven't cried like that for Tony. ... I was afraid to give way to it. I knew that if I started, I mightn't be able to stop. So I shut it down. And for the past two years, I haven't been able to cry at all."

On advice from friends: "Do your work. It might not be your best work, but it will be good work, and it will be what saves you." AND, from a widower friend: "The first time he had ventured out after losing his beloved wife, Gretchen, no one had mentioned her, and he had been hurt and angered. He realized that he needed to speak of her first, to allow others to do so."

In conclusion: "I do know this: my job is to carry his light. To keep him vibrantly illuminated for my sons, and for their children -- his grandchildren -- when they get here."

MEMORIAL DAYS received starred reviews from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Related titles to pursue include Year of Magical Thinking by Didion and Crying in H Mart by Zauner. Brooks also mentions The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alxander and A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates.

Personally, I want to highly recommend the "Daily Meditations For Working Through Grief" contained in HEALING THROUGH LOSS by Martha Whitmore Hickman, providing much needed solace to millions since it as originally published in 1994.

Heartbreaking. Brooks has a way of welcoming the reader into her feelings in a way that made me stop to remember I wasn’t experiencing this tragedy. Reminded me of Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking.

A terrific memoir by the always readable Geraldine Brooks. Alternating between the time just after her husband passed away and three years later as she mourned on a little island off Australia. Her raw emotions are hard to fathom but beautifully written. It's hard to believe that she wrote Horse during this tiime.

Not paying enough attention, I thought that this book was fiction. I'd always wanted to read Geraldine Brooks's book.
Once I realized this was non-fiction, I kept reading anyway. Her writing style drew me in, and I wanted to read on.

Spoiler Alert: he husband dies suddenly.

How she initially handled it, and how she eventually handled it, was very enlightening.

I couldn't help but put myself in her shoes.

This is the first book I've read by Geraldine Brooks, and because of it, her others are now at the top of my TBR. I'm not usually drawn to memoirs, but this is a spare story of Brooks' making space for grief following the death of her husband. It is sad, yes, but there is hope in the sadness, comfort in her husband's memory, and - as in life - moments of joy.

Geraldine Brooks is best known for her fiction. (Including People of the Book, perhaps my favorite novel.) Her latest book goes in a different direction. Memorial Days is a memoir focused on her grieving process after the unexpected death of her husband.

Brooks brings her novelist's eye and keen introspection to this brief, moving work. She delves into mourning practices around the world as well as the painful practicalities of dealing with a sudden death.

Highly recommended for anyone who has suffered a loss.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early review copy.

A beautifully written memoir which captures the utter hopelessness and overwhelming feelings of grief. Brooks shares her personal experience and thoughts on the unexpected and sudden death of her husband. She writes the book years later, as she reflects on all that she felt and endured. This is a book that speaks to anyone who has experienced the tremendous grief from the loss of a loved one.

A loving and powerful memoir of Brook’s grief after the sudden death of her husband, author Tony Horwitz. Brooks looks back on the hours and weeks after she was notified of Horwitz’s death and chronicles her time on a remote island years later to finally grieve in full. I had a hard time getting used to Brook’s voice/accent at first but soon came to appreciate the depth of emotion that came through in her narration.

Once upon a time, I started reading Joan Didion’s acclaimed book, “The Year of Magical Thinking”. I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe it’s where I was at that time in my life. I recently had two pets die in fairly quick succession and more than a few acquaintances of mine have lost a spouse, so maybe the time was finally right to read such a book as this. Beautiful and raw, you are let into the grieving process by a world class writer. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks is a memoir about the death of her husband Tony Horowitz. The book moves between the days just after his death and her trip to a remote island in Australia three years later. This was a really moving and powerful memoir about loss and grief. Brooks manages to pack so much feeling and details into a book that is just over 200 pages.

I was given an advanced readers copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an equally heartbreaking and heart mending book. I lost my father quite suddenly a year ago due to heart disease, so I recognized a lot of Geraldine’s experience in my own complicated grief. It is a book that I think I will revisit in the years to come as I face and process my grief, as I am sure parts of it will hit differently with each stage.

This book isn’t just for people facing their grief, but anyone who loves and cares for a grieving person. Death is the great unifier, but it’s not talked about nearly enough. I’m grateful for Geraldine’s story and contribution to de-stigmatizing grief.

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

This is an exceptional memoir. Geraldine Brooks writes about her grieving time after the death of her husband.

Tony Horwitz died suddenly on Memorial Day, 2019 while he was on book tour in Washington, DC.

Brooks postponed her grief, “I have cast myself in a role, woman being normal” until she chooses to “begin her own memorial days” not on Martha’s Vineyard where they made their family nest, but on remote Flinders Island, off the coast of Tasmania, Australia.

The geography of grief is difficult to navigate, often a private, ineffable tangle of emotions, although in Memorial Days, Brooks writes with precision about the desire to understand her loss, to take a long road, “The wideness I seek is in nature, in quiet, in time.”

An expansive memoir, a thoughtful meditation, and a testament to paths chosen and to paths yet unknown. Time well spent.

What a wonderful memoriam for her husband! Beautifully written and heartbreaking yet....lovely. She is such a great writer and this is a wonderful testament to her marriage

Not for everyone since it deals with a topic uncomfortable for all of us: the sudden passing of a loved one after a 35 year marriage and career partnership.Initially focused on the necessary details in dealing with a partner’s death three years later she retreats to a rural island in her native Australia and reviews their life together snd allows herself to properly mourn. Her insights into their life together and perhaps more importantly her keen observations to him as a father, man, famous author and husband are touching and moving, and she finally allows herself to howl and cry for his loss.
An insightful look into a stage of life that all of us eventually face -a stage which all of us wish we didn’t have to.

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks was another immediate five star read for me. This an emotional and beautiful memoir of the sudden loss of Tony Horwitz - Geraldine's husband and Pulitzer Prize winning author.

It is hard for me to put into words how beautiful, raw, honest, and transparent this work of grief is. Even if you haven't experienced this type of sudden loss, Geraldine Brooks puts you right into the space with her. You feel directly in center stage with her as she walks you through learning of her husband's passing. There are far too many special details throughout the book that are artfully punctuated with Brooks' skillful command of prose, but one area that stands out is when she is told her family no longer has health insurance. The way this scene is written immediately transports you into a scenario of "what would I do?". Although that scene ends with a positive resolution, it does take the reader down a path of contemplation and concern.

I really can't recommend this book enough. I think how it teaches us all empathy and to walk in the grief of others is a gift. It is stunning to me that a book can show you how to coexist with grief and joy all at the same time. A must read for anyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking books for the opportunity to read and review Memorial Days.

I received the ARC of Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks courtesy of Netgalley and The Penguin Viking Group. This heartfelt memoir deals with the sudden death of her husband, Tony Horowitz. Sharing the shock of his death, and the memories of their times together, Brooks reveals her strength in being there for her sons and family, while not allowing herself a period to properly grieve. The impact of Covid and her motivation to complete her novel Horse allowed no time for introspection. After five years, Brooks retreated to a remote area of Australia to ponder how to live without Tony, while appreciating her memories. By interspersing 2019 and 2024, we are permitted to view this process. I highly recommend this emotional book!

This book helped me better understand the shock immediately after the death of a loved one and how to better ask those around you what you need when you're grieving. The best piece of advice is from the afterward, when the author recommends creating a document with a list of everything only you do at your home so when you're gone, survivers know what to pick up and take care of.

My book club really enjoyed Horse and I will recommend this to those looking for more titles by this author.

Three years after the death of her husband, Tony Horwitz, author Geraldine Brooks retreated to a remote island off the coast of Australia to write and to grieve.

“I have come to realize that my life since Tony’s death has been one endless, exhausting performance. I have cast myself in a role: woman being normal,” Brooks writes in her memoir, Memorial Days. “But nothing is normal. Here, finally, the long-running show goes on hiatus.”

Horwitz died unexpectedly in May of 2019 — on Memorial Day, it turns out — while on tour promoting his new book. He was only 60. He and Brooks had been partners for more than three decades and were just starting to enjoy their empty-nest life together after raising two boys. His death shocked everyone who knew him, but especially Brooks.

In the memoir, she recounts the hours and days following his death, sharing stories of callous medical workers and absurd legal requirements that made the experience even more awful. Brooks also shares moments of grace that helped her weather her grief until she felt ready to confront it head-on, during her self-imposed quarantine on Flinders Island.

The sparse memoir explores some of the cultural and religious traditions around death, and how certain rituals can help survivors along their journey toward peace. It ends up being a book about relishing life as much as it is about navigating death.

With Brooks’ beautiful writing and flawless storytelling, Memorial Days has earned its place on the memoir shelf alongside classics like The Year of Magical Thinking and When Breath Becomes Air. A heartbreaking and exquisite story.

In this beautiful memoir Geraldine Brooks recounts the horror of her beloved husband’s sudden death and her process of handling her grief. Memorial Day 2019 was the date her journey begins with the many obligations and financial complications affecting her and her two sons. After three years she seeks peace in near isolation on a remote island off the coast of Australia where she finally comes to terms with her situation. She eventually finds peace as she begins to write again.