This book has been everywhere over the last few weeks, and I fell for the hype. Especially as it was shared by some of my lovely bookish friends who do not give their praise lightly to books – especially not books that are getting all the hype. So, when I was in the lovely Warwick Books at the start of the month and I spotted that they had a copy of ‘Broken Country’, I had to pick it up because the FOMO was real. And, well, let’s be honest, I would, one hundred per cent, have missed out if I had not picked this book up that day.
‘Broken Country’ kept me up past my bedtime on more than one occasion because I could not leave this world. This a beautifully written book, full of emotion from the first page, that will have you hooked from the moment you start reading. This is a story about love, in all the ways we may experience it, and how it can change our lives. It is hard not to reveal spoilers in this post, because I want to say so much about this book, but I also want people to experience this story with little knowledge of the plot – because you have to become immersed in it.
It is a skillful author who can tell a story from three different periods in a main character’s life and still make it all fit together seamlessly (and not make us reach for a piece of paper to make notes). Beth and her loving husband Frank have been living peacefully on their farm, until the return of Gabriel, Beth’s first love. The foundations of their relationship begin to be shaken and events that follow lead to devastating consequences for all involved. And, although I am not usually a fan of a story that has an affair at its centre, this book seems to be different, and I think that is down to the stunning storytelling and the wonderful characters that are brought to life for the reader. The tale also maintains its thrilling nature as we never have the full information until the very end – so we are drawing our own conclusions and trying to make our own predictions about what may have happened, or what may be going to happen.
The only final thing I am going to say about this story is that I was in tears at the end, and almost wanted to go back to the beginning and experience the story all over again. Because this is a book that you will wish you could read for the first time once you have read that final line.