The Diane Rehm Book Club: "Memorial Days" by Geraldine Brooks

The Diane Rehm Book Club selection for April 2025 is "Memorial Days" by Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Horse". She joins Diane from her home in Sydney, Australia. In this new memoir, Brooks traces her journey from heartbreak at the sudden loss of her husband, Tony Horwitz, through her days of mourning, and eventually, towards a kind of peace. 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. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received a devastating phone call. The demands were immediate and many. Without the space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Eventually, Brooks began to consider various ways in which cultures mourn and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony’s death. She joins Diane to talk about this life-affirming account of grief and mourning. *Due to last minute scheduling conflicts this video was not recorded in front of a live audience on Zoom, as has been the practice of The Diane Rehm Club.