Geraldine Brooks approaches David’s story by combining careful research with a focus on contemporary relevance. The Hebrew Bible (also called the Tanakh or the Old Testament) paints a detailed picture of David as a flawed individual. Some scholars believe this story is a collection of ahistorical folk tales written centuries later, while others argue that it is a mostly accurate history written down near David’s time. Much later, these scholars contend, rabbis told other stories (including that of David’s mother) to flesh out the original. While she acknowledges the uncertainty, Brooks adopts the biblical accounts and later stories as mostly true. She even reimagines them as the product of Natan engaging in historical research like her own, with the important difference that he could interview eyewitnesses to discover the human details that Brooks can only access through imagination.

Despite disagreement on details, scholarly consensus holds that a King David ruled in Jerusalem over Judah (or Yudah) and Israel around 1000 BCE. Outside of biblical sources, we have one early inscription mentioning him and a handful of buildings that might be evidence of prosperity during his time (301). The Hebrew people lived in the arid highlands near the rich trading cities on the Mediterranean coast between the great regional powers of Egypt and Mesopotamia.