Broken Country

By (author) Clare Leslie Hall
Short description/annotation:
An epic love story with the pulse of a thriller that asks: what would you risk for a second chance at first love?
Description:

''I devoured it'' MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of The Paper Palace

''Evocative, sensitive and compelling . . . Fires directly at the heart and hits the mark'' DELIA OWENS, author of Where the Crawdads Sing

Everyone in the village said nothing good would come of Gabriel''s return. And as Beth looks at the man she loves on trial for murder, she can''t help thinking they were right.

Beth was seventeen when she first met Gabriel. Over that heady, intense summer, he made her think and feel and see differently. She thought it was the start of her great love story. When Gabriel left to become the person his mother expected him to be, she was broken.

It was Frank who picked up the pieces and together they built a home very different from the one she''d imagined with Gabriel. Watching her husband and son, she remembered feeling so sure that, after everything, this was the life she was supposed to be leading.

But when Gabriel comes back, all Beth''s certainty about who she is and what she wants crumbles. Even after ten years, their connection is instant. She knows it''s wrong and she knows people could get hurt. But how can she resist a second chance at first love?

A love story with the pulse of a thriller, Broken Country is a heart-pounding novel of impossible choices and devastating consequences.

READERS LOVE BROKEN COUNTRY ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
''This book is everything. Love, heartbreak and hope''
''Will break you into pieces and then put you back together again''
''I was absolutely gripped and didn''t want it to end''
''If I could give more than five stars, I would. Perfect''

Review quote:
Broken Country destroyed me . . . it is set to be the love story of 2025. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Clare Leslie Hall''s writing is beautiful, her characters raw and real. The plot is perfectly crafted and the story really is a masterpiece. Sublime.
Review quote:
A stone-cold masterpiece - heartbreaking, life-affirming, it''s a celebration of love in all its forms. I loved every line - Hall is an astonishing writer
Review quote:
Beautiful writing you want to gorge on, characters who make your heart ache, an impossible situation. Grief, friendship, and the kind of love that makes you risk it all. All the stars.
Biographical note:

After several years of living and working in London as a journalist and writing Pictures of Him and Days You Were Mine, Clare, her husband and three children moved to an old farmhouse in Dorset. The house, the ancient fields surrounding it and the farmers who have a deep connection to the land inspired the setting for Broken Country.

Broken Country will be published in thirty-one countries.

Review quote: previous work:
Stirring, poetic and mysterious, 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

Combines the intoxicating passion of Normal People with the hard-won wisdom of On Chesil Beach. It is also as romantic about the British countryside as Elena Ferrante is about Naples. This is one exceptionally clever and deceptively simple novel . . . you could wait a lifetime for a nove