Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

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.

There are some novels that you start reading and just know, almost immediately, that you’re in for a treat. Broken Country was one such book for me.

Beth first met Gabriel in 1955 when she was 17, and the two very quickly became close despite their differences. They spend the summer together, experiencing all the madness and passion that come with first love, and the two seem like a genuinely good match. There’s a physical attraction but also a sense of friendship and mutual respect between them, and they bring out the best in each other. And Gabriel encourages Beth to dream big – some of the Oxford colleges have started to accept ladies, and Beth is certainly clever enough to join their ranks. Some things are just too good to last, however, and unfortunately this proves to be one of them, leaving Beth heartbroken.

The story of those first beginnings alternates with Beth in 1968, now older and wiser, as Gabriel unexpectedly and dramatically re-enters her life. It’s thirteen years since she last saw him, and she has been through good times and bad since then. It is immediately obvious, however, that the attraction between them is still there, and she’s unable to resist spending more time with him and his young son, Leo. Hall really ratchets up the will-they-won’t-they tension between Beth and Gabriel, and she portrays Beth’s mixed emotions brilliantly. Her temptation and desire come up against the hurt and anger of what happened between them previously, as well as feelings of guilt towards her husband, Frank, as she allows Gabriel to come between them.

One aspect that makes this such a great novel is that Beth’s position is understandable even if we wouldn’t all make the same choices that she does. Gabriel represents an alternative life to Beth – the path that she didn’t choose, and it’s not often that we get a glimpse of what that might have looked like. She’s a fantastic character from start to end – from a young student with potential and ambition whose plans are thwarted by circumstance. She relatable in her flaws, and brilliantly portrayed as she’s torn between these two men who mean such different things to her, loving them both but in different ways.

Beth aside, the remaining characters are also brilliantly wrought. Frank was always sweet on her as a child, and the two become close after things ended with Gabriel. Her life with him is a simpler one than it might have been, but one that is ultimately satisfying. One can’t help but notice the contrast between Frank and Gabriel – he’s stoic, calm, and reliable. A good man doing his best, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him as events unfold. Gabirel is a very different individual – from a well to do background, his flaws show through for the reader if not for Beth, particularly in his sense of entitlement and the benefits of family connections. After Oxford, he becomes an enfant terrible of the publishing world, as much of a rock star author as it was possible to be in the 60s.

If the family drama isn’t quite enough for you, there is also a court case ongoing throughout the novel, although it’s not immediately revealed who is in the dock or why. It’s a great hook, and plays out brilliantly as you know that events will come to a dramatic head, but with no idea how. It’s a clever novel with love and romance but also a hint of a thriller and I was hooked from beginning to end. Absolutely brilliant, and a novel that I heartily recommend.

Broken Country will be published on 4 March in physical, digital, and audio formats by John Murray Press. Huge thanks to the publisher and Ilkley Literature Festival for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel ahead of publication.