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.

This book is simply masterful. It belongs in every librarian's list of books about grief. Geraldine Brooks is an amazing writer and I hope she doesn't mind that I completely marked up my copy of this book with highlights and notes.

I loved this story of love and loss. It was so real, shoking and painful, but yet hopeful. I thought the moments and days after Tony's passing taught us all about coping or at least trying to cope. Mr. Horwitz spent time at my library in our archives and joined our book club to discuss Confederates in the Attic. He was truly full of life and his death so shocking. It is a wake up call to appreciate our time and our loved ones.

In this gorgeous grief memoir, the celebrated Australian author of Horse recounts her happy marriage to American historian Tony Horwitz that was tragically cut short in 2019. Geraldine Brooks gently narrates the audiobook that contains the worst day/week/month/year of her life.

While their partnership was romantically and intellectually "perfect," Brooks doesn't shy away from her husband's behaviors that may have encouraged his heart problems: nicotine, stimulants, booze, and working too hard.

I specifically enjoyed Brooks's glimpses into the couple's literary life—jetsetting on book tours, visiting Ann Patchett's Nashville bookstore, and their early careers as scrappy reporters.

This book made me want to read Geraldine Brooks's entire backlist, and reminded me of In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss.

This book was so meaningful to me. My husband iis dying and the journey is very difficult. As Geraldine discusses, our culture is not conducive to being sad. Not only is this story a love story to her dear departed, it is a check list of suggestions. I would recommend this book to anyone who has recently lost their spouse. Geraldine, thank you for being honest, and sharing your journey.

This book is the back story to Horse. I met Geraldine Brooks on a book tour for Hose and had no idea that she had this unresolved grief. Her journey to Australia gave herself the time she needed to remember her wonderful husband and the life they had. The book moves from Geraldine's life on a remote island off the coast of Australia to chapters remembering her husband and their family life. It is easy to follow and would give many readers a map to follow if they also need to grieve a profound loss..

Such a lovely, heartfelt memoir in Brooks’ always exceptional writing style. A read alike to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. Excellent book!

This is an extraordinary book. To write about something as overwhelming, boundless, and ongoing as grief at the sudden death of a much-loved partner and do it in a way that is both concise and resonant is remarkable. Novelist and former foreign correspondent Geraldine Brooks tells the story of her loss and her recovery (as much as recovery is possible) from the death of her husband Tony in alternating chapters. The lacerating details of being notified without comfort, the bureaucratic struggles that follow, her self-imposed exile to a scenic island in her native Australia, where in communion with nature she finally addresses fully the desolation she feels---all this and more is brilliantly told. Brava.

On May 27, 2019, author Geraldine Brooks received a phone call from Washington DC at her family's home on Martha's Vineyard. A harried and impatient medical professional informed her that her husband, author Tony Horwitz, had been found unresponsive on the sidewalk and declared DOA at the hospital.

Now, three years later, Brooks has traveled to a remote island off the coast of Australia to take care of an important task she has left undone - grieving the death of her true love and the life they imagined for each other and themselves.

This incredibly tender and moving book is as much a celebration of a life well lived as it is an exploration of the grief and the often inhumane consequences of losing a partner unexpectedly.

I spent much of this book near tears as Brooks recounts the days, weeks, and years of learning to live a life she never expected. Poignant, practical and vulnerable, this memoir stands with Dideon's The Year of Magical Thinking as one of the best remebrances of loss I've ever read.

I was given an advance reader copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Geraldine Brooks writing is superb. She is both intricate and direct in her writing. Her heartfelt memoir was very moving and melodiously constructed.

Well written memoir by a fine writer. A sad loss of a husband. It would be nice to have the means to go off to an island to mourn. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I have read and loved Geraldine Brooks's books and have long considered her my favorite author. Her newest book was different; it was personal. Brook's life changed suddenly when her husband of thirty-five years died suddenly on Washington D.C. Street. She thoughtfully shared with us the wisdom she gained through her experience of Tony Horwitz's death and her journey to grieve him properly.

Brooks’ writing is stellar. I loved the way she told the story, alternating between two timelines. First, she tells us the story of Tony’s death, starting with that fateful day when she received that horrendous phone call that none of us ever want to receive.  Her call came on Memorial Day 2019.

Secondly, she shared her journey three years later to a shack on Flinders Island in West Tisbury, Australia.  This is where she began her own Memorial Day journey.  A journey where she desired to “…do the unfinished work of grieving.”  She said, "I haven't honored Tony enough because I have not permitted myself the time and space for a grief deep enough to reflect our love." It’s a place where she finally doesn’t have to pretend that everything is okay. I was captivated by this concept. What a fabulous tribute to a lost loved one.

I also related to her advice of capturing in a document everything you and your partner will need to know to keep the household afloat if something happens to either of you.  Brooks puts her heart and soul into this book, and I am sure many will find it as touching and informative as I did.  Love it!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horowitz met in college and formed a formidable team until Tony suddenly dropped dead in 1999 just as his book tour promotion was launching. He was one of my favorite nonfiction authors and I had just finished read his recent release, Spying on the South, a delightful book. The loss of her partner was devastating and it took years to finally write this memoir.

When Brooks suddenly lost her partner of more than three decades, author Tony Horwitz (his book Confederates in the Attic is one of my favorite nonfiction titles), 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. This beautiful book toggles between the days following his death and her time in Australia. It is such a moving story about love, loss and pain, reflection, and how life isn’t always fair. For fans of books about grief and those who enjoy epic love stories.

This is a kind of a memoir-the author's husband died unexpectedly just as she was having a book published. She was far away from him at the time and their sons were also far away, so it was a complicated on a variety of levels. Trying to communicate with the healthcare professionals who tried to save him, trying to get his body released, trying to connect with their sons so that they would hear about their dad's death from her and not the internet, trying to settle the estate and deal with all the things her husband dealt with on a regular basis plus promote her new book. At a certain point, she decided to deal with her grief, and this book is part of that dealing. It's beautifully written, incredibly intimate, and sometimes hard to read. It's a roadmap of how she is coming to terms with the staggering loss of her husband and I so appreciated being taken along for the ride.

I have not read any of this author's previous works, but I am a fan of memoirs and it sounded intriguing. It alternated between the day of her husband's death (and the days and weeks following it), and the time she spent on a remote Australian island a few years later processing it. I was more captivated by the chapters set right after he passed away, but it was a short and easy read and she's a fantastic writer.

Geraldine Brooks book, Memorial Days, is about her grieving the sudden loss of her husband, Tony Horwitz. She and her husband were so intertwined with both having similar careers. In this book, in alternating chapters, first when her husband dies and 3 years later when she goes to Flinders Island Tasmania to finally be able to grieve. It’s a short book and certainly would be a help or guide to others losing a spouse. She says “to take control of this moment in the narrative of your life.”