BookBrowse Reviews Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

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A love triangle turns tragic in the English countryside.

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Clare Leslie Hall's novel Broken Country is a complex drama that explores themes of love and loss, betrayal and forgiveness. The year is 1968, and our narrator, Beth Johnson, is happily married to Frank, a sheep farmer in North Dorset. We learn early on that the couple had a nine-year-old son who died two years prior, and although they're still grieving, they have a strong marriage built on mutual love and respect. Their relationship is rocked, however, when wealthy author Gabriel Wolfe and his young son Leo return to their estate next door after living in America for the past decade. Beth's tale then rewinds to 1955, where she narrates meeting eighteen-year-old Gabriel when she was seventeen.

The narrative switches back and forth between these two timelines. The earlier one describes the brief but intense love affair between the teenagers, and it's full of the joys of youthful romance. The couple spends nights in a tent by a lovely lake on Gabriel's family estate, reading poetry to each other and simply enjoying the pleasures of first intimacy.

The later storyline is more fraught: Beth agrees to help watch Leo, who misses his absent mother, but as she spends more time with the child her feelings for Gabriel rekindle. As we watch this relationship blossom, we also see her seemingly solid marriage begin to crumble. Part of what drives the story forward is the question of which man she'll eventually choose: Gabriel, who represents passion, or Frank, who embodies stability.

A third timeline is intermittently inserted into these two primary stories: in 1969, Beth is attending a murder trial (why, exactly, is a mystery not revealed until the book's final pages). This timeline provides the framework around which the narrative is built, but it almost feels like an afterthought. The book's heart is its exploration of Beth's relationships with Gabriel and Frank, both in the novel's past and present.

As the author braids these three narratives together, she deftly engages her readers' curiosity. We're hooked from the very first sentence: "The farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him." Who is dead? Who killed him? Was it murder or an accident? Hall forces us to wait for these answers, dribbling out bits of information as the plot unfolds, all the while raising even more questions (e.g., Beth and Frank's son is dead, but how did he die? If Beth and Gabriel were so much in love, why didn't they stay together?). The format makes the book nearly unputdownable as each page offers clues to these and other secrets scattered throughout.

This technique might not have been as engaging if Hall's characters weren't so well developed. Each is a multifaceted creation, and even if readers don't necessarily like all of them, they will certainly understand them. We may not approve of Beth putting her marriage at risk, for example, but the author makes her sympathetic enough for readers to appreciate why she acts as she does.

And, of course, many people have wondered "what if…" when thinking about a former romantic partner, and Hall encourages us to ponder whether or not we'd make the same choices her characters do. I believe that this may be why a small number of readers don't care for the book. Beth immediately presents as an unreliable narrator. At one point, Frank asks her if he should be worried about her growing closeness with Gabriel and she responds that "There is no need, I promise." But the book's next line reads, "Back then, at the beginning, I believe this to be true." One can't help but feel that here, and at other places where she makes similar comments claiming innocent intent, that she had at least some awareness of her attraction to her former love, some idea of where her actions could lead. It is Beth who has agency over how events develop, and so it's easy to fault her for how the tragedy ultimately unfolds. It's a testament to the author's skill that she seems so real that some readers dislike the book because of the character's flawed ethics.

Broken Country was chosen as one of BookBrowse members' favorite books of the year, and with good reason. Its complex plot, realistic characters, and the mysteries at its heart make the novel a page-turner and one that most people will think about long after they've finished reading. It would also make a great book club selection; its themes of love, loss, infidelity, and forgiveness will provide much fodder for discussion.

This review first ran in the December 10, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.