Horse

In 2019, graduate student Theo Northam stumbles upon an old painting of the legendary thoroughbred Lexington and begins to piece together its history. His investigation leads him through two centuries: back to the antebellum South, where Jarret Lewis—a Black man enslaved for most of his life—was forced by a cruel owner to train and care for the horse; and forward into the present day, as Theo's growing obsession with Lexington's story intertwines with his own relationship with Jess, an expert at the Smithsonian. Geraldine Brooks weaves together themes of slavery, art history, and the enduring legacy of racism in American culture through a single extraordinary animal.