Memorial Days cover art

Memorial Days

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.
More purchase options

Memorial Days

By: Geraldine Brooks
Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
Get this deal

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.

Buy Now for $20.27

Buy Now for $20.27

WINNER OF THE 2026 ABIA BIOGRAPHY BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 STELLA PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 ABA BOOKDATA ADULT NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey toward peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse

Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy - collapsed and died on a Washington, DC street.

After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, and living in Sydney, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humour, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends. But all of this came to an abrupt end when, on the US Memorial Day public holiday of 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. 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 remote Flinders Island off the coast of Tasmania with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on the island's pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve, and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony's death.

A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony and mystery of life.

'It's personal, immediate, an opening up. It's from the heart . . . Geraldine's gift to us is that she has written her truth' THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY

'Heartbreaking yet hopeful. We're lucky to have Brooks to help us make sense of the world' WA TODAY

'Quiet, vulnerable and tender . . . Radically and beautifully open' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

'Another gift from one of our greatest living writers. It is one for all readers, but especially the bereaved, who will find comfort in Brooks' beautiful, aching prose and deft hand' ARTSHUB

'[Brooks] is a practised storyteller and her ease with a sentence brings lilting momentum to the well-trod terrain of literary grief' THE GUARDIAN

'Wise and nourishing' RICHARD GLOVER

'Moving and inspiring' THE AGE

'Both raw and gentle, immediate and nostalgic' CANBERRA TIMES

'A well-wrought heartbreaker' THE AUSTRALIAN

'A beautifully braided memoir of marriage, grief, love and living, it makes you treasure every instant of "normal" life' ANNA FUNDER Art & Literature Authors Best of 2025 Grief & Loss Jewish Heritage Journalists, Editors & Publishers Personal Development Relationships Women's Voices Heartfelt Massachusetts
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
This was an intelligent and beautifully written account of the death of the author’s beloved husband, the journalist and author, Anthony Horowitz. Geraldine, alone and grieving had to hurry to Washington, then tell her sons, become bogged down in all the aftermath of a death and after 3 years she goes to remote Flinders Island to grieve alone and privately. It helps. She has learnt a lot and will have to live hopefully, but with the sadness of her husband’s loss. Well read too, by the author, although I had to speed it up a notch.

Moving and heartfelt

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A challenging but beautiful way to acknowledge grief. Reassurance that most of us can adapt and learn to walk beside our grief, not be subsumed by it. A fitting tribute to Tony H.

Raw and Real

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thank you Geraldine B for writing such a beautiful and meaningful book for all of us who will inevitably lose someone we love.

Love love love

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author, Geraldine Brooks, tenderly recounts the sudden death of her husband, Anthony Horowitz, and her struggle to mourn his loss and honour his life.
A memorable book- every chapter is a gift.

An exceptional memoir of love and loss

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
very personal. not very uplifting. autobiography. but well written and easy to listen too. nicely presented

not outstanding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.