BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall

5 stars

This devastatingly beautiful, must-read novel centers on unrequited youthful passion that ends up decades later in a murder that wrecks innumerous lives in a small English farming community in Dorset. You cannot help but be swept up in the story, with your heart feeling as wrenched as the characters involved.

In the summer of 1968, local village girl Beth Johnson and scion of a wealthy Gabriel have intense intellectual and physical romance. Swept up in the each, they vow to stay connected as Gabriel heads off to Oxford in hopes of becoming a writer and Beth dreams of following him the year after as an aspiring poet. Gabriel’s family of course wants him to be with someone of his own class and actually brings American friends to stay at the mansion, along with their gorgeous daughter Louise, who also will be entering the freshman class of Oxford. As Gabriel’s letters to Beth start to ebb and then she visits him to discover he’s in a relationship with Louise, she returns heartbroken to home.

Beth marries kind-hearted farmer Frank and exchanges her passion about poetry for a deep love of Frank farming the family land along him, his brother Jimmy and Dad David. That is until their wonderful nine-year-old son Bobby dies tragically in an accident for which Beth blames Frank, and grief threatens to overcome them both and wreck their marriage. Two years after Bobby dies, separated Gabriel returns to live at his family mansion along with his eight-year-old son Leo. Beth forges a close bond with Leo, who deeply reminds her of Bobby and helps her work out her grief, as well as finds her passion for Gabriel reignited.

All this swirls towards violence and running alongside the stories of both timelines is a murder trial – yet we don’t know until deep into the book who’s the accused and who’s been killed.

Beth’s torn between two men, both of whom she loves in profoundly different ways, and this proves the heart-breaking core of the novel. The language often verges on the poetic as you’re plunged into a compelling and unforgettable morality tale about love and loss.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.