Achingly romantic and moving, Hall's sweeping debut explores an emotional love triangle as Beth's former lover returns after years away from the village to sow doubt and heartache in her current relationship.
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.
Publisher: John Murray Press
ISBN: 9781399820417
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 520 g
Dimensions: 234 x 158 x 32 mm
A love story like no other - CHRIS WHITAKER, author of All the Colours of the Dark
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. - HEATHER CRITCHLOW
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 - KATE SIMANTS
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. - LAURA PEARSON
An absolute triumph. This novel has all kinds of love - young love, forbidden love, brotherly love - all wrapped up in the most beautifully evocative descriptions of a pastoral landscape. Mistakes, bad choices and accidents conspire to create a slow-burn mystery with tragedy at its heart, yet there is hope too in this story of splintered loyalties and unbridled passion. Poetic, erotic and compelling, it is quite magnificent - VERONICA HENRY
An addictive story of an affair that reads like a thriller . . . a knotty and exhilarating story of a woman unable to make up her mind between two very appealing options. It's a classic recipe, and Clare Leslie Hall executes it to perfection - Irish Sunday Independent
An absorbing novel about love and the weight of the past, this is a beautifully written read - Image
In this surprising romantic novel, there are decisions to be made that are heartbreaking and real, yet amid the gentle pastoral setting . . . it has all the pace of a literary thriller. A dazzling debut - Woman & Home, Book of the Month
This is a love story and a thriller - irresistible. Read it now before it hits your screens - The Gloss
This story of a love affair is so addictive it could be at home with the thrillers . . . A simmering book of secrets, scandal and devastating consequences - The i
Beautiful . . .So moving on the subject of how a tiny decision can have cataclysmic consequences - Good Housekeeping
Excellent . . . a vivid, forceful love story which plays out at the pace of a thriller - Irish Times
Wistful love meets murder . . . a tear-jerker - Grazia
Powerful - Sun
So much more than a love story this novel is so compelling and confusing (in a good way) I really didn’t know how I wanted it to work out as you’re drawn to every character and understand their different positions. It... More
Written from Beth's viewpoint, Broken Country charts her passionate love affair at 18 with Gabriel Wolfe, the handsome son from the big house in the village. He's due to begin his degree in Oxford after the... More
Already easily my favourite book of 2025. What an emotional journey this was! I was devastated, I was exhilarated, I was filled with longing. For anyone that's lived in shades of gray. I highly recommend this... More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
