For those of us drawn to tell the stories of the past, seventeenth-century England has a great deal to recommend it. It is distant enough to offer the frissons of historical exotica, yet so close that the minds of the time are recognisable to us. In addition, it is hard to think of a period in one country so packed with incident. Where else, in a single lifespan, can a novelist convincingly have h ... (read more)
Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks divides her time between Sydney and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. She won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for March (2005), and her new novel Caleb’s Crossing is published this month. Her other books include Year of Wonders (2001) and People of the Book (2008), as well as the non-fiction works Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995)and Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over (1998).