Name: Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
Rating: 4 (6 reviews)
Author: Clare Leslie Hall

About this book

Summary
Book Club Questions

Book Summary

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.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

How does Gabriel's return challenge Beth's perception of her own life choices? Did you find Beth's internal struggle between her past self and the woman she has become relatable?
If you were Beth, would you have chosen Frank or Gabriel?
Discuss the small-town setting of Broken Country: How did the tight-knit atmosphere of the village contribute to the unfolding drama? Do you think the events of the novel would have played out differently if it weren't set in a rural farming village?
Did you enjoy the way Clare Leslie Hall teased out the details of the murder trial? Who did you initially suspect was on trial? Did it play out the way you thought it would?
Before Beth and Gabriel consummate their affair, do you...

Media Reviews

"[Hall's] prose is so transportive that it's impossible not to hang on...an elegantly written historical novel with a compelling love triangle and a couple of clever twists." —Kirkus Reviews

"Hall serves up twist after twist in her canny U.S. debut, a story of grief, love, and murder set in the Dorset countryside. This sharp morality tale will stay with readers." —Publishers Weekly

"Broken Country is at its heart a novel about love and loss, about selfishness and selflessness, and about the consequences of decisions made for these reasons...Both aching and thrilling, Broken Country is a masterful book by an accomplished author." —Booklist

"Broken Country combines the intoxicating passion of Sally Rooney's Normal People with the hard-won wisdom of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach. It is also as romantic about the British countryside as Elena Ferrante is about Naples. Both a love story and a pulsing suspense, you could wait a lifetime for a novel as good as this." —Jo Furniss, author of The Last to Know

"Broken Country is mesmerizing: delicate and forceful, lyrical, brutal, and passionate. I devoured it." —Miranda Cowley Heller, New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

"Stirring, poetic and mysterious, Clare Leslie Hall's novel, Broken Country, reveals how tender and innocent love between a boy and a girl can alter the lives of families for generations. Even on a quaint and quiet sheep farm of rural England, misguided passion brings murder and criminal charges against the most innocent of players because human nature is far from tame. Yet, even as love destroys, it can return to heal on the same sacred meadow where it was first conceived. This evocative, sensitive and compelling novel fires directly at the human heart and hits the mark." —Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing

This information about Broken Country (Reese's Book Club) was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own review

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth@Silver's Reviews - So GOOD
What happens when the love of your life appears after thirteen years, but you are married and still grieving the death of your child?

In 1955, Beth and Gabriel had an intense relationship that ended up broken because she found out he was with another woman.

in 1968, Gabriel and his son move back into the family home next door to Beth and Frank, and the feelings resurface.

Beth finds it difficult to resist seeing and being with Gabriel. Her husband Frank isn't blind to what is going through Beth's mind.

He can see how they react to each other.

What will happen with this love triangle and with all the events that occur?

This actually isn't a romance - this dual timeline read is filled with emotion, characters you won't forget, and events that will tug at your heartstrings.

The book was a bit slow at first, but the writing, the pull of the characters and their lives, and the tension, twists, and surprises make this book one you will not soon forget.

Tissues needed - especially in the ending pages. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Trisha

A heartbreaking story about marriage, loss, guilt, and a tragedy
"Everyone played a part in the tragedy."

A heartbreaking story about marriage, loss, guilt, and a tragedy. Beth is married to Frank, living a small town life on a farm. She loves her life, loves her husband - but they have had a tough few years. They lost their son to a tragic accident just a few years ago and it's hard, to see past their own guilt and sadness.

There is also a before - we learn more about Beth and her first romance, the first man she fell in love with. He was new to their small town and matched her wit and loved to write, just like she did.

The story takes you through the past and now - as they work through a new tragedy. It isn't clear, at first, how these parts all come together. But the story is broken in parts and makes it very easy to start to piece in together. After Part 1, I found the story to be very fast paced. I wanted to know what happened and how this would all conclude. What an amazing story that broke my heart.

Jill

Compelling Debut
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC read now ebook.

This is the author’s US debut and you will fall head over heels with this unputdownable read. A sweeping story set primarily in the 1960’s but toggles back in the past too, with so many layers it is hard to describe. It is a coming-of-age story, a love story, a family drama story, and a bit of a thriller. So many secrets are revealed in this passionate love triangle of Beth, her loving husband, Frank, and Gabriel Wolfe, Beth’s young love. Beth must make a choice — between the woman she once wanted to be, and the woman she has become. There are twists I didn’t see coming in this compelling read and a big satisfied sigh upon the end.

I enjoyed the simplicity of her writing style and the character development. I am not a fan of romance novels, but this is so much more than that. I am looking forward to what this author will write next. This will be out March 4, 2025.

Dianne

Disappointing
Lies, secrets, and more lies. This is what this book is all about.

Set in the late '60s, this is a book about a poor girl falling in love with a rich boy. They are both out of their element, but it works...for a while.

I don't particularly like books that promote cheating on one's spouse, but there was a tiny bit of something that told me I should read this until the end. With that said, there are huge twists and turns in the final few chapters that sort of make the cheating make sense.

This was quite the emotional novel that deals with cheating, the death of a child, and another unexpected death.

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Author Information

Biography

Clare Leslie Hall

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut.

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