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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Antebellum slavery violence; some period cruelty toward enslaved people and animals
Language
Some
Moderate language; period-authentic register in historical sections
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief adult relationship in the contemporary timeline
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The way American history erases Black contribution while celebrating its products, art as a form of witness, racism operating across centuries in the same institution
What this book is about
Lexington was the most celebrated racehorse in American history, born in Kentucky in 1850. His story passes through the hands of those who owned, painted, and studied him: an enslaved groom, a celebrated painter, and a young Black art historian in 2019 who discovers a forgotten painting in a Washington dumpster. Geraldine Brooks's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a layered, urgent exploration of race, memory, and the American tendency to erase the people it used to build what it celebrates.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
slavery and racial violence in the historical sections
racism in contemporary academic settings
dual timeline structure
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