Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
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4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is an unforgettable story of love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives…but it’s also a masterfully crafted mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Seriously, that ending?! I did not see it coming.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Stirring and mysterious…fires directly at the human heart and hits the mark.” —Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing
A love triangle unearths dangerous, deadly secrets from the past in this thrilling tale perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing.
“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
An old-fashioned romantic drama and a courtroom thriller blended into one pageturner, Broken Country is a surprisingly powerful read. On a sheep farm in rural Dorset in the spring of 1968, a farmer shoots a dog that’s attacking his newborn lambs. In a moment, his actions change the lives of his brother, Frank; Frank’s wife, Beth; and the local squire Gabriel, a wealthy man newly returned to his family’s nearby estate—who, um, also happens to have been Beth’s first love back when they were teens in the mid-’50s. It’s a story that could have been told by one of the Brontës or Charles Dickens, and author Clare Leslie Hall does right by it, creating compellingly flawed, three-dimensional characters and placing them in an artfully rendered time and place. In fact, the setting is so distinct, it’s almost as if the English countryside becomes a character in itself. This is going to be one of the big book club reads of the year.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
English writer Hall serves up twist after twist in her canny U.S. debut, a story of grief, love, and murder set in the Dorset countryside. The year is 1968 and Beth Johnson, wife of gentle sheep farmer Frank, remains shattered by the death of her nine-year-old son, Bobby, in an accident two years earlier. Her first love, Gabriel, a bestselling novelist who grew up wealthy on a nearby estate, returns with his young son, Leo, after separating from his American wife. Beth reconnects with Gabriel, fantasizing about rewinding her life to a simpler time, and she forges a bond with Leo, who reminds her of Bobby. An unreliable narrator, Beth provides a blinkered view of the action, mentioning early on that a farmer has been murdered and someone close to her is on trial for the crime, but neglecting to reveal the identities of these two characters until more than halfway through the narrative. As a result, readers are kept guessing about the precise consequences of Gabriel's return and the circumstances behind Bobby's death. Hall makes Beth a fascinatingly complex lead who vacillates between restlessness and contentment, and the other characters' motivations prove to be different than they seem at first glance. This sharp morality tale will stay with readers.
Customer Reviews
Beyond chick-lit
Warm and comfortable story that fills the space with many likable and believable characters. The novel builds in unexpected ways right to the very end. Easy reading that filled a seven hour plane trip. This is a love story filled w positive sentiment - a nice balance to real life these days.
Perfect Balance
Artful story weaving the lives of a family with enduring love, sacrifice, grief and passion all rolled into a surprise ending. Great memorable read!
Not a 4 star book
This story is utterly implausible. I could not enjoy it because every plot and sub plot was completely unbelievable
But, I guess that’s why they call it “fiction”!