The novel 'Horse' is the story of an enslaved man grooming a winning thoroughbred Lexington was a winning thoroughbred in the mid-1800's, and the basis of Geraldine Brooks' new novel, "Horse." Scott Simon talks with her about her story.

Geraldine Brooks, Horse This book is based on a real horse, a real painting, a real skeleton, and real people. The stories were fictionalized but it was difficult to know where her research on real events ended and the fiction began.

"The Horse" is an instrumental song by Cliff Nobles and Company.

The novel ends as Jess boards a plane back to her home country of Australia with Theo's dog Clancy in tow, and with the image of a dream in which Lexington runs across the Australian desert with his earliest known equine ancestors at his side.