Broken Country

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.

These discussion questions were provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Book club questions for Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

How does Gabriel’s return challenge Beth’s perception of her own life choices? Did you find Beth’s internal struggle between her past self and the woman she has become relatable?

If you were Beth, would have chosen Frank or Gabriel?

Discuss the small-town setting of Broken Country. How did the tight-knit atmosphere of the village contribute to the unfolding drama? Do you think the events of the novel would have played out differently if it weren’t set in a rural farming village?

Did you enjoy the way Clare Leslie Hall teased out the details of the murder trial? Who did you initially suspect was on trial? Did it play out the way you thought it would?

Before Beth and Gabriel consummate their affair, do you think Beth is being fair to Frank by keeping the extent of her emotional connection to Gabriel a secret? Is it possible for someone to fully move on from a past relationship if they haven’t completely healed from it?

How did Beth and Frank’s marriage seem to you at the start of the novel? Once you read on, did your perception of their marriage change?

Discuss the role that grief and loss play in the novel. How do different characters respond to loss? How does the loss of Bobby affect Beth and Frank’s marriage? What role does grief play in shaping Beth’s relationship with Gabriel?

The novel is full of hidden secrets and repressed emotions, especially in the way people in the village react to Gabriel’s return. What role do these secrets play in the novel? How do they affect Beth’s relationship and her sense of self?

Discuss Beth’s journey of coming to terms with her son’s death. How does the arrival of Leo and Gabriel affect her ability to cope with that loss?

Do the rural setting and the natural world have symbolic significance for the characters and the plot? How might the land and country itself mirror the emotional conflicts in the story?

What do you think Clare Leslie Hall is trying to say about the power of first love in Broken Country? Does it always leave a lasting impact? Did you feel that Beth’s past love with Gabriel was a source of strength or pain for her? How does this influence the way she views herself and her current life?

Throughout the novel, Beth is confronted with the woman she once was versus the woman she has become. What do you think the author is saying about identity, particularly how it is shaped by love, grief, and time?

The novel ends with some explosive consequences and twists. Were you surprised by the revelations at the end? Did you see any of them coming? If so, when?

Broken Country Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Broken Country discussion questions

"Broken Country is at its heart a novel about love and loss, about selfishness and selflessness, and about the consequences of decisions made for these reasons. Each decision is driven by the one before it, and Beth, especially, is stretched to her breaking point. Both aching and thrilling, Broken Country is a masterful book by an accomplished author."—Booklist

"[Hall's] prose is so transportive that it’s impossible not to hang on...an elegantly written historical novel with a compelling love triangle and a couple of clever twists."—Kirkus

"Hall serves up twist after twist in her canny U.S. debut, a story of grief, love, and murder set in the Dorset countryside. This sharp morality tale will stay with readers."—Publishers Weekly

“A love story like no other. By turns a searing mystery, and a brilliant and beautiful look at the price of a second chance, and the complex notion of fate and forgiveness. Stunning."—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark

“Stirring, poetic and mysterious, Clare Leslie Hall’s novel, 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. This evocative, sensitive and compelling novel fires directly at the human heart and hits the mark.”—Delia Owens, New York Times bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing
“Broken Country is a beautifully observed and brilliantly constructed page-turner of novel. It has everything – love, loss, fury, forgiveness – and I was absolutely immersed from page one.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon

“Broken Country is mesmerizing: delicate and forceful, lyrical, brutal, and passionate. I devoured it.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

“Broken Country combines the intoxicating passion of Sally Rooney's Normal People with the hard-won wisdom of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach. It is also as romantic about the British countryside as Elena Ferrante is about Naples. Both a love story and a pulsing suspense, you could wait a lifetime for a novel as good as this.”—Jo Furniss, author of The Last to Know