Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)

By Clare Leslie Hall

Over 1 Million Copies Sold

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is an unforgettable story of love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives…but it’s also a masterfully crafted mystery that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Seriously, that ending?! I did not see it coming.” —Reese Witherspoon

“Stirring and mysterious…fires directly at the human heart and hits the mark.” —Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Mar 4, 2025
• ISBN: 9781668078204

Clare Leslie Hall

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine.

Book preview

1968

Hemston, North Dorset

Gabriel Wolfe is back living in Meadowlands, Frank says, the name exploding at me over breakfast. Divorced now. Just him and his boy rattling around in that huge place.

Oh.

It seems to be the only word I have.

That’s what I thought, Frank says. He gets up from his side of the table and walks around to mine, takes my face in his hands, kisses me. We won’t let that pillock cause us any grief. We’ll have nothing to do with him.

Who told you?

It was the talk of the pub last night. Took two huge great lorries to bring all their stuff from London, apparently.

Gabriel hated it here. Why would he come back?

His name feels strange on my tongue, the first time I’ve spoken it aloud in years.

There’s no one else to look after the place. His father long gone, his mother on the other side of the world. Up to her neck in dingo shit, with any luck.

Frank always manages to make me laugh.

What’s here for him, anyway? Frank says, casually, but I see it, the unsaid thought that flits across his mind. Aside from you. He’s bound to sell up and move to Las Vegas or Monte Carlo or wherever it is these…—he grapples for the word, looks pleased with himself when he finds it—"celebrities hang out."

Frank spends all the daylight hours and a fair few at nighttime out on the farm, caring for our animals and tending the land. He works harder than anyone I know but always takes time to notice the beauty of a spring sunset or the sudden, dizzying soar of a skylark, his attunement to weather and wildlife set deep in his bones. One of many things I love about him. Frank doesn’t have time to read novels or go to the theater. He wouldn’t know a dry martini if someone chucked one in his face. He’s the very antithesis of Gabriel Wolfe, or at least, the one we read about in the papers.

I watch my husband leaning against the door to pull on his boots. In twenty minutes’ time his skin will be permeated three layers deep with the stench of cow dung.

The door, rapped hard from the other side, makes Frank start. Bloody hell, he says, yanking it open so quickly his brother falls into the room.

Our mornings invariably start this way.

Jimmy, still ruddy from last night’s beer, eyes screwed half shut, one strand of hair sticking straight up as if it’s gelled, says: Aspirin, Beth? Got a banger.

I take down the medicine box from the dresser where it lives primarily in use for Jimmy’s hangovers. Once upon a time it was full of infant paracetamol and emergency plasters.

There are five years between them but Frank and Jimmy look so similar that, from a distance, even I struggle to tell them apart. They are well over six foot with dark, almost black hair and eyes so blue people often do a double take. Their mother’s eyes, I’m told, though I never had the chance to meet her. They are both wearing shabby corduroys and thick shirts, soon to be covered in the navy overalls that are their daily uniform. In the village they are sometimes called the twins, but only in jest; Frank is very much the older brother.

What happened to ‘just going to finish this pint and call it a night’? Frank says, grinning at Jimmy.

Beer is God’s reward for an honest day’s toil.

That from the Bible?

If it isn’t, it should be.

We’ll be with the lambs at midday. See you then? Frank calls to me as the brothers go out of the door, still laughing as they cross the yard.

With the men out milking and the kitchen cleared there are plenty of jobs to get on with. Washing—so much of it—both brothers’ overalls rinsed and waiting for me on the scrubbing board. The breakfast washing-up. A floor that always needs sweeping, no matter how often I take the broom to it.

Instead, I make a fresh pot of coffee and put on an old waxed jacket of Frank’s and sit at the little wrought iron table looking out across our fields until my gaze meets its target: three red chimneys of differing heights peering above the fuzz of green oak on the horizon.

Meadowlands.

Before

1955

I don’t know I am trespassing, I am lost in a dreamworld, my head full of romantic scenarios in which I triumph. I picture myself beside a fountain with an orchestra in full flow, receiving an impassioned declaration of love. I read a lot of Austen and Brontë at this time, I have a tendency to embellish.

I must have been staring up at the sky, head in the clouds quite literally: The collision comes out of nowhere.

What the hell?

This boy I bump into, his shoulder bashing into mine, is no hero. Tall, slender, arrogant, like a teenage Mr. Darcy.

Don’t you look? he says. This is private land.

I find the whole private land thing slightly absurd, particularly when it’s accompanied by a curt, cut glass accent like this one. This meadow we are in, green and curving, oaks with their cloud-bloom flowering, is England in its full glory. It’s Keats, it’s Wordsworth. It should be for everyone to enjoy.

Are you smiling? He looks so annoyed, I almost laugh.

We’re in the middle of nowhere. There is no one else here. How could it possibly matter?

The boy stares back at me for a moment before he takes in what I have said. You’re right. God. What is wrong with me? He holds out his hand, a peace offering. Gabriel Wolfe.

I know who you are.

He looks at me expectantly, waiting for my name. But I don’t feel like telling him yet. I’ve heard talk of Gabriel Wolfe, the famously handsome boy from the big house, but this is the first time I’ve seen him in the flesh. He has a good face: dark eyes framed by eyelashes my girlfriends would kill for, wavy brown hair that flops across his forehead, sharp cheekbones, elegant nose. A patrician kind of beauty, I suppose you might call it. But he is wearing tweed trousers tucked into woolly socks. Draped across his shoulders like a cape is a jacket of matching tweed, belt dangling. Old man’s clothes. He’s not my type at all.

What were you doing here?

Looking for a place to sit and read. I draw my book out of my coat pocket—a slim volume of Emily Dickinson.

Oh. Poetry.

You sound a little disappointed. P. G. Wodehouse more your thing?

He sighs. I know what you’re thinking. But you’re wrong.

I’m smiling again, I can’t help it. What are you, a mind reader?

You think I’m a brainless, upper-class twit. A Bertie Wooster.

I tilt my head and consider him. He’d love your getup, you have to admit. He’d say it was spiffing.

When Gabriel laughs, it changes him completely.

These are my father’s old fishing trousers. I nicked them out of a box of stuff going to the jumble sale. I wouldn’t have worn them if I’d known you’d take such offense.

Is that what you’re doing, fishing?

Yes, just down there. I’ll show you, if you like.

I thought it was out-of-bounds for plebs like me?

You see, that’s why you have to come. I’ve been rude and I’d like to make it up to you.

I stand before him, unsure. I don’t want to get caught up in something that is hard to get out of. All I wanted was a pretty spot to sit and read.

He smiles again, that face-changing smile. Handsome even in his old man’s garb. I’ve got biscuits. Please come.

What kind of biscuits?

Gabriel hesitates. Custard creams.

Fountain, orchestra. Lake, biscuits. It’s not so much of a stretch.

Well, in that case… I say, and this is how it begins.

1968

Of all the seasons, early spring, when the air is sly with cold and the birds are starting up and the fields are filled with lambs, has always been my favorite. Bobby was mad for our lambs. He fed the waifs year after year with a bottle, that was his job, he wouldn’t let anyone else touch it, even stayed off school to do it one time. A spirited boy, he wore shorts right the way through winter and no coat, even when the headmistress sent him home for one. A golden boy, he sang so much when he was little we called him Elvis. He was tall and skinny with brown hair that stuck up just like his uncle’s.

Jimmy has the transistor radio playing, I can hear it well before I reach the tin barn. It’s the Beatles: Hello, Goodbye at full volume. Not very pastoral, but it’s clearly working for Jimmy’s hangover. I watch him as I come in through the gate at the top of the field, he has one hand resting on a ewe’s backside, hips swaying from side to side, left foot jiggling.

Where’s Frank? I say, and Jimmy points to the bottom of the field.

Together we stand and watch as my husband vaults the fence. One strong arm placed on the top rail, his body swung out at a right angle before he clears it like an Olympian hurdler. I see him doing it most days but it still gives me a small rush of pleasure, the simple joy of it in a man whose life is dominated by hard work.

He walks up the field toward us, swinging his arms energetically; even from here I know he is probably whistling. This is Frank where he most loves to be.

Most of our ewes have delivered, we have forty-six lambs out to pasture with a handful still in the stalls. Only one bottle feeder and one stillborn. Frank and Jimmy look over the pregnant sheep, palms against their bellies to check for a breach, examining their rears for signs of birth. It’s more instinct than anything; they could do it in their sleep. Jimmy is the soft touch, he chats to the ewes while he works, gives them Rich Tea biscuits when he’s done. Frank is always in a rush, in his head an unending checklist of tasks, a brain that holds too much.

Think we could wrap up the mothers’ meeting and crack on? Frank says, and Jimmy rolls his eyes.

Bossy so-and-so, isn’t he? he tells the ewes.

The sheep have a long, sloping field to themselves but they don’t spread out much, always clustered up here, next to the barn. In a week or so the lambs will become more independent, and that’s when they start frisking off in one direction or another, spindly legs buckling. The stage Bobby loved the most. He was a farm boy, he understood how it worked, but every single year it broke his heart when it was time to ship his babies off to market.

I don’t know which of us hears the barking first. We spin around to a golden-haired lurcher tearing toward us.

A stray dog, no owners with him, charging our lambs.

Get out of it! Frank tries to block the lurcher. He is six foot two, broad and fierce, but the dog just darts around him, straight into the thick of our ewes.

The sheep are moaning, tiny offspring bleating in fear; only a few days old, but they sense the danger. A flick-switch change in the dog. Eyes black, teeth bared, body rigid with adrenaline.

Gun, Jimmy! Now! Frank yells, and Jimmy turns and runs to the shed.

He’s fast, Frank, racing at the dog with his primeval roar, but the dog is quicker. It picks off a lamb, nips it up by its neck, throat ripped open. The appalling red of its blood, a jet of crimson pools on the grass. One lamb, two lambs, then three; guts spilling out like sacrificial entrails. The ewes are scattering everywhere now, stumbling out, terror-blind, their newborns exposed.

I’m running at the dog, shrieking, trying to gather up the lambs but I hear Jimmy yelling, Out of the way, Beth! Move.

And then Frank has grabbed me into his arms so tightly I’m pressed right into his chest, and I can feel the thundering of his heart. I hear the gunshot and then another, and the dog’s quick, indignant howl of pain. It’s over.

Bloody hell, Frank says, pulling back, checking my face, a palm pressed against my cheek.

We walk over to the dog, the three of us cooing and calling out to the sheep, Come on, girls, but they are shivering and bleating and giving the three infant corpses a wide berth.

Out of nowhere, like a mirage, a boy comes running up the field. Small and skinny in shorts. Maybe ten years old. My dog, he screams.

His voice so sweet and high.

Fuck, Jimmy says, just as the child sees the bloody heap of fur and yelps, You killed my dog!

His father is here now, panting and flushed, but scarcely different from the boy I knew. Oh, Jesus Christ, you shot him.

Had to. Frank gestures at the butchered lambs.

I don’t think Gabriel has any idea who Frank is, or at least, who he is married to, but then he turns and catches sight of me. Momentarily, panic flits across his face before he recovers himself.

Beth, he says.

But I ignore him. No one is looking after the child. He is standing by his dog, hands covering his eyes as if to black out the horror.

Here. I’m beside him in seconds, my hands on his shoulders. And then I kneel in front of him and wrap my arms around him. He begins to weep.

Keep crying, I say. Crying will help.

He collapses against me, wailing now, a boy in shorts in my arms.

And this is how it begins again.

The Trial

Old Bailey, London, 1969

Nothing could prepare me for the agony of watching the man I love sitting high up in the dock, flanked by two prison officers, as he awaits his verdict.

A man accused of an unthinkable crime.

He never glances up at the gallery to search for my face and he doesn’t look at the jury either. Doesn’t observe them, as I do, examining each one, panic pounding through me, as I ask myself: Will this tired-looking, gray-haired woman believe in his innocence? Will this middle-aged man in his banker’s garb of pinstripe suit, blue shirt with a white collar and cuffs, be the one to vote against him? The young man with shoulder-length hair, who looks kinder than the rest, might he be our ally? Mostly they are inscrutable, the seven men and five women who hold his fate in their hands. My sister says it’s good there are plenty of women. They are more compassionate, she says, as a rule. It feels like clutching at straws, but a part of me hopes the female jurors might understand the derailing passion that made us risk everything.

After months of our talking about it, the trial has begun. Everything about this courtroom seems to emphasize the severity of our situation: the high ceiling and wood-paneled walls; the judge, resplendent in red on his high-back chair, like a king on his throne as he surveys his court; beneath him the barristers in wigs and black gowns, looking through papers as they wait for proceedings to begin; and the court clerk quietly pompous as he stands before the dock and makes his chilling proclamation: You are charged with the murder…

The press bench is filled with journalists in tweed jackets and ties, not a single woman among them. And then there is the gallery, where I sit with Eleanor, along with all the rubberneckers. Not so long ago I shared their thirst for human drama. How avidly I followed the Profumo scandal and the subsequent trial of Stephen Ward. I remember, as if it were yesterday, the photos of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies leaving court, how stylish they looked, how the press still managed to denigrate and cheapen them.

It’s very different when the prisoner in the dock is the person you love. Look up. Please, my love. I try to engage him telepathically, the way we always used to, but he stares ahead with his strange, blank eyes. The only giveaway of the distress I know he is feeling—felt in every waking moment since—is the angry clench of his jaw. To an outsider, perhaps, he looks hostile, but I know better. It’s the only way he can stop himself from crying.

Before

If I were to paint a picture of a classic English lake it would look just like the one at Meadowlands.

The surface is covered with clusters of water lilies, the flowers a fist of white and pink with bold yellow hearts. At the far end a pair of willow trees stretch out across the water, and three white swans are gliding toward us in a uniform line, as if the gaps between them have been measured with a ruler.

Gabriel has set himself up with a rug, a picnic hamper, and a folding canvas chair, a pair of fishing rods propped up against it. He gestures to the chair—Be my guest—but I choose to sit next to him on the rug instead. From the hamper he produces a tartan thermos of tea and a packet of Garibaldi biscuits.

I raise my eyebrows and he grins.

I thought you might not come if I told you it was squashed-fly biscuits.

I watch him pour tea into a white tin mug with a navy rim. He has beautiful hands, with long elegant fingers. He adds milk and sugar without asking and hands it to me.

On the far side of the lake, near to the willows, there’s an ancient-looking khaki tent, the kind you see in safari films. I can imagine Grace Kelly sitting outside it, sipping a gin and tonic, a neat shirt tucked into her fawn-colored breeches.

What’s the tent for?

I camp here in summer. Wake up and swim every morning. Fry bacon and eggs on a little stove.

It seems odd to me, a boy who lives in a house the size of Meadowlands, choosing to rough it instead under canvas.

Like everyone else in the village I’ve been to Meadowlands for the annual summer fete. I’ve eaten wedges of Victoria sandwich in the tea tent, hooked myself up to my sister for the three-legged race, come last but one in the egg and spoon. I’ve seen Gabriel’s mother, Tessa, dressed like a fashion model in head-to-toe black: her neatly tailored suit more fitting for Paris than Hemston; a wide-brimmed hat, huge sunglasses; scarlet lips her only hint of color. Compared to all the other mothers in their plain print dresses and sandals, she always seemed exotic and untouchable. I can picture his father, Edward, besuited, bespectacled, and much older, gamely lobbing balls at the coconut shy.

What I can’t remember is Gabriel.

Why have I never seen you at the village fete?

I’ve always been away at school. Not anymore, though. I sat my last exam two weeks ago. Three months at home before I go to university, not sure how I’ll stand it.

I gesture to our view. The glittering water and overhanging trees, their fronds reflected in a mirror image of feathery gold. The irregular stipple of white and pink. How hard can it be?

He glances at me, then shrugs. It’s not a sob story, if that’s what you mean. I know how lucky I am. But I’ve been at boarding school most of my life. I don’t know anyone my age here. I suppose what I’m saying is, I don’t much like being at home.

What about your parents? Don’t you get on with them?

He swivels his hand in a so-so gesture. My father is quiet, scholarly, spends most of his time shut up in his study, reading; I don’t quite know how he ended up with my mother—a moment of madness, I think. They could not be more different. He doesn’t ask me anything, she never leaves me alone. She wants to know every detail of my life, who my friends are, which parties I’ve been invited to, whether or not I have a girlfriend. Especially that. She has a weird fascination with my love life. And she can be difficult. Especially when she drinks, which is most of the time.

I met Gabriel fifteen minutes ago, perhaps less, but already I can tune into the words he doesn’t say. I can picture him aged ten or twelve, sitting beside a tall, exquisitely dressed Christmas tree, surrounded by presents but craving something else: teasing and chaos and banter.

When I begin to talk about my own family, I catch the wistfulness on Gabriel’s face. I tell him about my sister, who is about to finish her first year as a secretary for a solicitors’ firm in London. Her days may be spent taking minutes for short-tempered men, but at night she explores London in all its postwar glory. She writes to me of jazz clubs in Soho and after-hours drinking dens, wandering at dawn through the flower market at Covent Garden, waking hours later to a bedroom strewn with red roses.

To a country girl, the life my sister is leading seems one of unparalleled color and richness; I cannot wait to join her.

I tell Gabriel we have spent most of our adolescence leaning out of Eleanor’s bedroom window, sharing cigarettes filched from our father’s packet of Benson & Hedges, spinning daydreams for one another.

What do teenage girls dream about? James Dean? Marlon Brando?

Bit more highbrow than that, I say, immediately defensive.

But Gabriel is right, we spoke of boys and love mostly.

And—he looks up as if he’s examining the thin trail of cloud above us—were there any ordinary mortals in these dreams of yours? I suppose I’m asking if there’s someone in particular you care about?

Actually, there is, though I’m not about to tell Gabriel that. There’s very little to tell. A boy who takes the same bus to school and always smiles at me. A boy who is tall and broad and handsome, who looks too big for his uniform, as if one day he might burst out of it. His skin is always sunburned from weekends working on the family farm. He has let it be known in time-honored fashion, from his friends to mine, he would like to take me out one day. I have filtered back that if he asked me, I would be likely to say yes.

It seems simplest to evade the question. Mostly we’d make up futures for each other. The dreams I spun for Eleanor were always more elaborate than the ones she made up for me. Eleanor gets bored easily. And I could get so lost in the detail, hours of conversations, wrong turns leading to right ones, I’d always make her wait for her happy ending.

"You’re a storyteller,

Reviews for Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)

[Marijana Milenković · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful book! So sad and yet full of hope and second chances. Thank you!

[Makcyn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The rollercoaster of feelings that this book took me on! Wasn't sure who to root for , had me twisted in knots! Beautiful, bewildering, sad and hopeful story!

[vancouverdeb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent read. Beth Johnson is living on the family farm in Dorset, with her kind husband , Frank. Shortly after Gabriel Wolfe arrives in Dorset, his dog attacks the sheep on the Johnson farm. Beth's brother in law , Jimmy, shoots the dog. From there. the Johnson's become involved in Gabriels' life and and vice versa.

Gabriel was Beth's former boyfriend and lover. Gabriel is now divorced and has custody of his young son, Leo. Beth and Frank lost their young son , Bobby , in a tragic accident a few years prior. Because Leo reminds Beth of Bobby, she offers to tutor him. The past comes back to Beth, and soon she is involved in a love triangle. Jimmy has troubles with alcohol and his emotions.

I am not much for romance, or love triangles, but this offered so much more . Interesting characters, the slow unfurling of secrets kept, and a bit of a thriller. I had trouble putting this book down.

Recommended.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one sounded SO good in reviews by people whose judgment often aligns with mine. But somehow it just failed to ring my bell. I never trusted or sympathized with the narrator. I was always aware of being misdirected, in a way that tended to throw me out of the story. I couldn't just let it wash over me the way I prefer this type of fiction to do. Maybe I've read too much of this sort of thing....seen too many TV "murder shows" where it's the person no one even considers, so THAT's how you know. Maybe it's lack of authorial skill. Or maybe I'm just cranky about women who have good options and don't choose them. YMMV.

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully written love story filled with tragedy, trials and tribulations - but most of all, love.

[bookczuk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was highly recommended to me, but not for the reasons I liked it. It is a story filled with sadness, devotion, love, mistakes, ands the wild English countryside. It drew me in pretty immediately, and I followed along, knowing from reviews and book blurbs that there was pain coming to characters I was beginning to know. In some ways, it’s similar to an older style of story, and is about love on many levels, but not a romance (though it’s billed that way in some places) but a human story of multiple types of love, mistakes, betrayal, and forgiveness. I was fascinated by it all during my reading of it.
Rounding up in star ratings, because it’s the first book in a long time where, for me, the characters emotions are sometimes palpable. I’ve been a bit numbed by 2025.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, author; Hattie Morahan, Narrator
This is the story of Beth Kennedy and Frank Johnson. They were in love and had found an idyllic lifestyle on the Blakely Farm. Frank’s mother had died in a farm accident when her son Jimmy was very young. Frank had stepped in and totally devoted himself to bringing up his brother. He lived with them on the farm. Beth loved him too. When Beth went into labor during a ferocious storm, which cut her off from help, Jimmy arrived home from school just in time. Although, just a teenager, he immediately helped her birth her son. He had already assisted with the births of many animals on the farm and was not at all upset by the experience. He was mature and capable and saved the day. At other times, though, Jimmy loved his drink too much. He became erratic and was a handful when he was under the influence. Still, the baby, Bobby, became the light of every Johnson’s life. Even grandfather David, who was normally very distant, was smitten by Bobby’s presence. Everything seemed perfect! Then Bobby died in a tragic accident on the farm, and Beth blamed Frank for not watching him closely enough.
Beth and Frank’s relationship began to suffer, especially when Gabriel, her former lover, and now a successful novelist, returned. His young son, Leo, and his dog, returned with him. When the dog got loose, it attacked the newborn lambs on the farm. Frank shot the dog to save the rest of the sheep. Leo was beside himself with grief. Frank and Beth comforted the boy. Although Frank and Gabriel were “enemies”, for obvious reasons, he accepted the idea of Beth helping Gabriel out by tending to his son Leo for a few hours a day. This helped Gabriel work on his writing and also helped Beth work through her own grief over losing Bobby. Unfortunately, it also rekindled her relationship with Gabriel.
In the past, when Beth had been a teenager, before she had met Frank, she and Gabriel Wolfe had been an item. He lived in a magisterial home called Meadowlands. He wanted to be an author and would be going off to Oxford. Beth, who hoped to be a poet, was going to apply to Oxford, as well. Gabriel’s mother, Tessa, did not approve of Beth, since she was not from their social class. She would try and manipulate the situation to insure their separation. Beth had done something she should not have, however. She had read Gabriel’s diary and that had made her suspicious. It infuriated him when she told him. However, it had made her worry that Gabriel was being unfaithful and wanted to break up with her. Instead of discussing her fear, she simply accused him of what she had feared. He was young, and he was so insulted and enraged by the next words they exchanged, that the argument ended their relationship. This was the foreshadowing of many more misunderstandings to come.
Beth and Gabriel were now thrown together and soon began an affair. Her schedule with Leo enabled it. When Beth’s infidelity was discovered, she was the talk of the town. Her brother-in-law Jimmy and his wife Nina were horrified. They couldn’t believe her betrayal. Tongues were wagging. Jimmy was beside himself with rage. Frank, on the other hand, in his inimitable unselfish way, was trying hard to understand what was happening, without getting angry. He even seemed willing to let them be together. The family was being torn apart because of Beth’s foolish choices. Then, shortly after this discovery of infidelity, Jimmy was killed and his brother Frank was on trial for his murder. Jimmy’s wife Nina, once Beth’s close friend, turned her back on all of them. Was Frank guilty? During the trial, it was obvious that the performance of the lawyers seemed to be more important than establishing the truth. The best actor would win. The verdict shocked them all. Was justice done? Time passes and another child is born. Beth has a daughter called Grace. Grace would not meet her father for many years. When she finally met him, did her reaction seem credible?
Beth tended to make so many impetuous choices without thinking them through and thus was responsible for bringing about much of the confusion, chaos and further tragedy into all of their lives. Would she be forgiven or even liked as a character? Here secrets upended their lives. How would they all fare in the future? Leo had witnessed too much trauma. Nina, only newly married, was suddenly a widow. This story about deep friendship and passionate love, devotion and loyalty, loss and grief, betrayal and redemption, secrets and lies, is ultimately also about sacrifice, sacrifice that was not always rewarded and was often punished. Gratitude was not the strong point of some, nor was kindness or compassion.
Some of the characters’ behavior was so disappointing. In the end, I felt that no good deed went unpunished and there was retribution when I had hoped for justice. The conclusion stretched credibility for me and I had to suspend disbelief. Broken country is about broken relationships, broken marriages, broken promises, broken hearts, broken people and broken spirits. After the loss of a child can a marriage survive? After infidelity, is forgiveness really possible? Is blame the only response to grief? Beth wanted to return to a time before life’s chaos broke her, but can you ever truly go back? Can Humpty Dumpty be repaired? This story began with the death of a beloved dog, but it ended with the death of a troubled and beloved man. Would life go on?

[lauralkeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beth is happily married to Frank and together they operate a farm in Dorset. Their marriage has remained strong despite the death of their 9-year-old son Bobby, although each privately mourns his loss every day. Enter Gabriel, Beth’s first love, who returns to the village after a divorce. Gabriel’s son Leo reminds Beth of Bobby, and against her better judgement she grows close to Leo and her increasing contact with Gabriel has dramatic consequences.

But Broken Country is not only a love triangle romance; it’s also a suspenseful thriller. The narrative moves between 1968 and “Before,” slowly creating a picture of Beth’s teenage years, her relationships with both Gabriel and Frank, Bobby’s death, and Beth and Frank’s gradual healing. Through vague references, omissions, and time gaps it becomes apparent that a significant event will transform all of their lives. The tension builds steadily, and even when the event occurs the specifics are sketchy. The real “punch” comes from misdirects created by details left unsaid, and their slow reveal resulted in several satisfying “aha” moments.

This “twisty romance” really worked for me. I loved everything about it: the characters, the setting, the plot, and the author’s gift for weaving it all together. I found myself caught up in both aspects, reading this book every time I had a spare minute.

[mav1n1libby · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this months ago, so the very quick synopsis of this:

[contains spoilers] It's a historical fiction that bounces back and forth between time. There is Beth who is married to Frank. And her old love Gabrielle comes back to town. I remember it made me want to put the book down, but glad I kept going was a dog was shot in the beginning. And then we find out that is Leo's dog - And Leo is Gabrielle's son. Beth also used to have a son Bobby who passed away. Later in the book (horrifying) we find out that a tree landed on him when Frank and some other people were taking it down and didn't realize he was outside. Literally jaw dropping. Beth starts spending a lot of time with Leo and Gabriel and eventually has an affair with Gabriel. One weekend Jimmy (Frank's brother - he's the one who shot the dog) gets drunk again and goes missing with a shotgun. He claims he’s going to kill Gabriel. Beth goes to warn them and she hides under the table with Leo when Gabriel goes out to confront Jimmy – who has a shotgun and is firing in the house. Poor Leo reminds Beth that Jimmy shot his dog. There is also a trial throughout that we don't know all the details of but it’s revealed that Frank is accused of murdering his brother, Jimmy. But really what happened was Leo killed Jimmy - and Frank took the fall for it, because he didn't want Leo to go through that. Frank took the fall because he said he couldn't protect Gabriel's first son - so Bobby, the boy who died was actually Gabriel's. But Beth is pregnant and has Grace who is Frank's daughter. I rated this 4 stars based on the fact I actually vaguely remember all this (after reading a synopsis online) and there was a lot of action and twists.

[janismack · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Story of a family accident involving a child that changes the trajectory os many people’s lives. I thought this book was ok but I didn’t understand amy of the caracters behaviors. The end was a revelation and answered mny questiona.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A small town drama revolving around a love triangle and strong family loyalty. This is compelling and well-written, but in the end I wanted something a little more from the themes and plot.

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There are no winners in this novel of heartbreak and regrets. Parents lose a child, a child carries a lifetime of guilt, and there is a murder. Beth and Gabriel, an only child from a wealthy family, ignite a passion as teenagers that has lasting consequences. When Gabriel heads to Oxford, Beth marries Frank, a local farmer who has loved her since they were children. Gabriel marries, divorces and heads back to his family home with his son, Leo. Their passion reignites with lasting, fatal consequences. Beth is apparently heedless of the damage she has created until the trial. Frank should be canonized for the burden he has borne for Beth and Gabriel, and Beth emerges unscathed. This book is engrossing and well written; however, the character of Beth leaves me unsettled.

[bookofsecrets · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love triangle; sad,
the past always catches up.
She can't have them both.
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•
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BROKEN COUNTRY is a beautifully told story of love and loss set during dual timelines, mid-1950s and late-1960s, in an English farming village. It goes so much deeper than a love triangle though; broke my heart and stomped all over it, yet also hopeful. Part mystery and part family drama, this captivating book lived up to the hype and then some. A highly recommended 5-stars!

[bblum_10 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On an English farm Beth falls in love with the local upper crust boy who visits his large ancestral home as a teen

[bdartnall_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Compelling read with a narrative that moves between the "Before" and Present day... this structure can be annoying!, but the author masterfully manages to keep the threads going clearly enough one can follow the details. Beautiful prose - descriptions of family life and their 200 acre sheep farm via the main protagonist's voice, Beth Johnson, are endearing. Her first love, Gabriel, and her gentle, strong husband Frank are not given any narrative voice of their own... not sure how different the story would have been presented but because there's a murder trial on the opening pages, and the reader isn't able to piece together WHY this person's on trial and for whose murder - you keep reading to find out. I really appreciated the novel's treatment of Bobby, Frank & Beth's son who tragically died at 9 yrs old: her insights on ways a child can illuminate and deepen a marriage, then a child's death can eat away at maritial bonds, how grieving a child's absence never ends..heartbreaking. Sprinkled with lovemaking scenes that are passionate & descriptive but not prurient. A little unrealistic for a farmer's wife to slip over to her former love's home every day for a lovemaking tryst while her husband toils on the farm... geez. Some key facts were kept from the reader until the very end of the story - a bit of a "cheat" on the author's part (and so overdone in novels today), but it was so well written, so poignant in tone I easily forgave that to just continue reading about all of these characters - fast read.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was the Reese’s Book Club pick for March 2025. And that’s probably the reason I put a hold on the audiobook. I should have been waiting much longer to get this book but my library offered me a 7 day listen just as I was finishing another book and while I was recuperating from hip replacement surgery. So, it seemed like a good time to snatch it up.
The book is set in farming country in England but as the book plays out against that bucolic backdrop, the reader realizes there is a lot of tragedy. Beth, her husband Frank and her brother-in-law are out among the spring lambs when a dog attacks them. The brother-in-law grabs a shotgun and shoots the dog. Just then a man and his young son pull up calling that the dog just got away from them. The young boy is traumatized by the shooting of his dog. That’s how we are introduced to Gabriel and Leo Wolfe, the people who have just moved in next door. Yet, Beth and Gabriel already know each other. They were young lovers one memorable summer but haven’t seen each other since they split up. Beth can’t help being attracted to Gabriel’s son because he reminds her so much of her own son, Bobby, who was killed in an accident a few years previously. Gabriel is now a successful writer, recently divorced from Leo’s mother who moved to the US with her new husband. As Beth and Gabriel are drawn together, there is a new chapter with Beth watching a trial of the “man she loves”. Obviously, we are going to learn why there is a trial and who is the accused but not for quite a while. In the interim, we are going to have flashbacks to that first love affair and discussion of present-day emotional events.
I don’t know if I’m incredibly astute or if the author gave a lot of clues, but I did figure out the reason for the trial, who was the accused, and who was actually guilty well before those things were revealed. In addition, I thought most of the characters were one-dimensional. Frank is the nice guy, Beth is the woman in love with two men, the brother-in-law is the perpetual adolescent and so on. This was an engaging listen but not worth all the praise that has been heaped on it.

[marydevries · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm in the minority here but I found this book incredibly sad and depressing. None of the characters were happy but also none of them was willing to make the changes needed to make life better. I felt gave the message that if you mess up when you are young, you can't change later in life. Admittedly, maybe it just wasn't the book for me.

Although, I didn't find the story enjoyable the book was well written and easy to read.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing, definitely one of my top books for the year. The story is a haunting story of love and loss, sacrifice and redemption. I loved every word of this book.
The book opens dramatically - with a statement - the farmer is dead. It takes quite a while to find out who is dead and who killed them. The story unfolds layer by layer, alternating between before (1955) and now (1968). At the center is the relationship between Beth, Frank, and Gabriel. It is a story with longing and you can feel the heartache on each page.
I devoured this book in just a few hours, and will be recommending it to everyone!

[mcelhra · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beth, a teenager who lives in a small country town, is taking a walk when Gabriel sees her and tells her to get off his land. Even though Gabriel, a rich boy home from college, is extremely rude to Beth at that first meeting, they soon start up a passionate love affair. They try to keep it going after Gabriel goes back to college but eventually Gabriel breaks Beth’s heart.

Fast forward to present day, which in Broken Country is the late 1960s, and Beth, her husband Frank and her brother in-law Jimmy are tending sheep when a dog runs up and starts killing the lambs. Jimmy shoots and kills the dog to save anymore sheep from being slaughtered. The dog belongs to Gabriel, who is back in town after several years away. This shot starts a series of events that no one could have imagined.

I loved Broken Country even though I didn’t necessarily love Beth all the time. She made some very bad decisions. At the beginning of the book, I thought I knew where the story was going but I was totally surprised and completely wrong. I don’t want to say anymore and risk spoiling it. Broken Country kept me up until 3am because once I got to a certain point, I couldn’t tear myself away from it.

Highly recommended.

[mchwest · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book, quick read because it was so good. BUT it irritates me that a book has been picked and published with a famous book club sticker on the cover. Which means automatic number of sales even if the content of the book isn't that good. In my opinion it was a well written, good plot and fast paced. I love the characters and the twist at the end was not expected. I will pass this to all reader friends and then on to our free little library.

[shazjhb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book about a passionate love affair between a rich man and a village girl. This is a before and after book. It is extremely sad so be prepared. There are lovely children in the book and the adults are pretty amazing as well. The choices people make and the lies that are sometimes necessary to survive.

[fredreeca · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

I think my whole issue with this book is Beth. I am not usually too judgmental of characters, but I HATED the way she treated her husband, Frank. He did not deserve what he got. Which is probably why this book is getting so many five stars. It is emotional, it is tricky and it is full of secrets!

What makes this whole book is the ending. And it does have quite a bit to wade through to get there. But, it is worth it. There is a twist, and yes, I figured it out but then changed my mind. And it gives you another reason to love Frank!

Need a novel which will make you mad, sad, and curious all in the same paragraph…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest opinion.

[nicx27 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Broken Country is a multi-layered, beautifully written story of first love, enduring passion and second chances. Beth and Gabriel fell in love when they were just kids really, seventeen and head over heels in an all-consuming love affair. It's Frank who rescued Beth when it all went wrong and offered her a home on his family farm, his love and the warm embrace of his own family. Beth loves Frank intensely but the unfinished business with Gabriel is hovering in the background waiting to resurface and turn Beth and Frank's lives upside down once again, for Beth also still loves Gabriel.

I can't think of anybody else who writes such achingly exquisite stories about the pain of all-encompassing love in the way that Clare Leslie Hall does. If you haven't read her other books (written as Clare Empson but soon to be republished as Hall) then I heartily recommend you do so as you will find similar features there. It's the main reason why I love her writing and why I was so thrilled when I heard about Broken Country.

The characterisations are utterly sublime, from Beth struggling with her feelings, to Gabriel's intensity, to Frank's stoic support. Each of these three main players jumps off the page and I felt like I was right there with them. The other supporting characters are just as well-formed and I very much liked the setting of the farm which felt like a character of its own, continuing to draw Beth in and provide salvation to her.

If you want a an epic love story that burrows its way deep into your heart then Broken Country is for you. The way Hall depicts heartbreak is so so special and tears were shed!. It is the work of a writer par excellence.

[cats57_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Simon & Schuster, the author, and NetGalley.

[susan0316 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This US debut novel is a beautifully written story with characters that readers won't soon forget. This is a story full of love and forgiveness, grief, anger and hope for the future. One of the characters made a mistake by trying to relive her younger years without worrying about the recriminations that it would cause in the present.

The story is told in two timelines- 1955 and 1968. Both timelines meld together very well to tell the story.

1955 We learn all about young Beth's affair with Gabriel. Beth is a young country girl looking for a romance as wonderful as the poetry she loves. Gabriel is rich and when he isn't in school, he lives with his parents in their large estate home. When they meet, Beth is sure that Gabriel is the man who will fulfill all of her romantic yearnings and they spend a lot of time together during that summer. Often a deep romance can't stay the same as life gets in the way and when he goes back to college, their plans begin to crumble.

1968 - Thirteen years later, Beth is married to Frank. He is a gentle farmer who values Beth and their marriage despite a catastrophic event that took place several years earlier. When Gabriel and his young son, Leo, suddenly move back to the family home, Beth finds herself torn between the past and the present. As she begins to spend more time with Leo, her feelings for Gabe begin to resurface. How will Beth handle her memories of her past happiness with her present day love for her husband?

I loved this novel. The characters were wonderfully written and realistic. I especially liked Frank who was quiet and loved his wife. My feelings for Beth vacillated between like and dislike as she faced the changes in her life. This is a beautiful slow moving love story - a triangle between 3 people who all have to decide if their past happiness is stronger than the lives they are leading now.

[whiskeyinthejar-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

The farmer is dead, he is dead and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.

Broken Country was the story of Mess, told in literary style and awash in melodrama. It centers on Beth, a young woman that grew up in the English countryside and how the decisions she makes shapes and twists her life. Told in five parts (four named for the males in her life) and alternating three timelines, readers are started off with a murder. It's obvious that there's lies to be figured out as Beth's point-of-view clues us in but then we're taken back to the months before the murder and the arrival of Beth's past love Gabriel. When a horrible incident has Beth entering his life again, by way of watching his young son as he's a new single dad, readers can feel Beth being pulled into trouble. The story then jumps to Beth and Gabriel meeting as young teens and from there the alternating timelines are set, the beginning in 1950s with Beth and Gabriel's romance, the past in 1968 with Beth and Gabriel entering each other's lives again, and the present in 1969 with a murder trial.

But we are not who we once were.

The alternating timelines weave the reader in and around the characters' relationships showing how they were formed and their emotional ties. The literary style works to elevate the tone but the way Beth goes about things is pure Mess. There's the alluring rich boy Gabriel, the country girl Beth who doesn't feel worthy but has big dreams, and the strong stoic farm boy Frank who yearns and loves Beth from afar until he gets his chance with her. Even though these characters do fit into these common molds, I did think the author infused them with enough depth to keep you absorbed into their characters and lives. Frank's stoicism was probably the most I wanted to break out of, feeling a little noble poor idealistic. The secondary characters of Frank's younger brother Jimmy, Jimmy's girlfriend, and other friends and family appear and provide enough to give a good rounding out of the main characters' world.

Our love triangle – the farmer, his wife and the famous author – has been prodded and picked over and sensationalised out of all proportion in Fleet Street.

This started off with me trying to work out the mystery of the who, what, and whys of the murder mystery, but I slowly drifted from that to becoming more invested in how Beth's grief (there are content warnings in this for death of a child, death of an animal, murder, and alcoholism) had her pulling from those close to her and trying to escape into a past idealized life that was no longer there for her. The last twenty percent delivers reveals readers were waiting for and one that felt hinted at but will still shock some, and an ending that will first hurt until an epilogue delivers the healing. If you enjoy melodrama mess in literary style that takes you on an alternating timeline journey as the murder mystery is slowly untangled, then you'll want to pick this one up.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wandering the fields near her home during summer vacation, Beth runs into her wealthy neighbor, Gabriel, and they begin a teenage romance that goes horribly wrong. Picking up the pieces of her life, Beth winds up married to Frank who adored her from afar for years. In Broken Country, debut author Clare Leslie Hall weaves together narratives from different points in Beth's life, readers learn about her relationship with Gabriel, her marriage to Frank, and multiple tragic events that befall the family. Hall successfully builds suspense as she reveals information from each timeline, and Beth emerges as a complicated character that readers will feel for. Other characters may not be fleshed out as well, but the intricately woven plot keeps the pages turning. With its strong writing and good story, Broken Country will appeal to a lot of readers.