Broken Country - August CC Book Club Selection

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Our August selection is Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, a New York Times bestselling novel that is part love story, part family drama, and part mystery. Set in a small English village in the 1960’s, the book tells the story of Beth Johnson, whose peaceful existence with her sheep farmer husband is upended when her first love returns to town. Secrets from the past resurface, with deadly consequences.

"Layered and lyrical, this stunning novel expertly builds suspense while revealing its secrets, and it conveys deep truths about love and loss.”—People

"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

Discussion begins August 1st. Please join us!

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Ok—finished the book — I plan to participate in August.

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I just started “The Correspondent,” since I mistakenly thought it had been chosen and now have to return it in a few days—it has been sitting on the coffee table.

PS It’s a good read. Finished it quickly.

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Also read “Chasing the Clouds Away.” Enjoyed it more than expected—quick read.

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Reminder: CC Book Club Broken Country with discussion starting August 1. My copy just got to the library for pick-up, so I haven’t started reading it yet. I’ll join the discussion when I can. Looking forward to it.

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Another reminder: discussion starts August 1.

I started reading the book yesterday. I have no doubt that I’ll be finished by August 1, meaning it isn’t “a hard read.”

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I just started this past week, too. Looking forward to discussion.

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Finished at 11:30 last night!!!

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It’s August 1st! Welcome to our discussion of Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall.

I feel fairly neutral about this book, and am interested to see if our discussion will tip me one way or the other. I appreciated that it was a well-plotted, concise story, and the prose was decent, if sometimes a little flat. However, it was a hard story to like. The first half filled me with impending dread, moving implacably toward the violent death of a child. The second half was a gradual unraveling of a mystery that (spoiler alert!) ended in another tragedy for another child. Then in-between those sad tales, we are given this passionate love affair between Beth and Gabriel that I just could not get on board with.

We get to know Frank well enough to realize that he’s a saint, and we get to know Gabriel well enough to realize that he is just a mediocre human being. Not a bad guy, but not an exceptional one either. What did Beth see in him? I couldn’t guess. And to be honest, I also wondered what Gabriel and Frank saw in Beth to make them both head-over-heels in love with her, but maybe she’s just a modest first person narrator, so we don’t get to see all her charms.

On the whole, I was not terribly invested in the characters — or at least I didn’t think so until I turned the last page and read the poem. That got to me.

Discussion questions below for those interested!

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Discussion Questions:

1. 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?

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

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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 relationships and her sense of self?

9. 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?

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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? https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/broken-country/guide

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I’ll be honest that I really struggled with the themes of this book. As a bereaved mom I was really triggered from the get go, plus the theme of infidelity isn’t one that I love in my fiction. That said, it was compelling enough of a story that I stuck with it.

But, I really really struggled to believe that Beth would leave Frank for Gabriel. I also struggled that Gabriel didn’t bother to try to tell Beth she was mistaken about his college infidelity at the time. That seemed very far fetched to me if she was indeed the love of his life.

I don’t typically like books that skip back and forth in time/place but that surprisingly worked for me with this book. I think the author did a good job with that.

The ending/murder situation seemed ridiculous to me.

Overall, I too was neutral about this book and not sure that I would recommend.

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I can already tell that I made the right choice to skip this book!

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I tried hard to like the story! I was falling asleep while reading it (tbh jet-lag had something to do that). But the story never grew on me and I disliked the characters as fleshed out by the author. I skimmed the second half, debated about going back to refresh myself on key points and decided it was a waste of my time to do so.

Things that had me scratching my head.

If Gabriel is the man that she truly loves, why does Beth even go out with Frank so quickly? Her family were supportive of her having a baby outside of marriage — there was no need for the rush.

Why was Jimmy so affected by Beth’s affair? Especially after he has just got married, presumably, to the love of his life. A happy chapter was beginning.
Sure, he lost his mother to an accident early, and there was Bobby’s death as well but it doesn’t explain the rage that is barely contained.

And the birthday party — are 8 or 9 year olds old enough to handle guns, however well they were supervised? If you’re the child of a family that models appropriate gun handling and shooting practices, that may be ok but to allow the other kids who haven’t been around guns to handle loaded guns was a bit irresponsible.

I didn’t like Beth, tolerated Gabriel, found Frank too saintly to be true, and the rest were just imperfectly and incompletely sketched out characters.

Although I can’t actually remember another book with a similar story, the whole thing just seemed hackneyed to me.

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@momofboiler1, I’m so sorry for your loss. I can see how the themes in this book could be very triggering.

You and @AnAsmom’s mom expressed much of what I felt (which is something of a relief). In spite of the negatives – or in a way, because of the negatives – I think this will still be a good book for discussion. I’ll gather my thoughts and address some of the points above in a bit.

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Beth really felt so selfish & immature to me. I really was disappointed in her. She and Gabriel had a lot of time to figure things out but chose to just quit because the evil step mom was able to put the kibosh on things. I just wasn’t buying that.

Frank sacrificing himself and going to prison really didn’t make much sense to me either
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of this book.

I couldn’t figure out Jimmy either.

In “The Correspondent,” they deal with a childhood death differently, without infidelity. I found that book a slower start but more “true to life,” with more mature & interesting characters than this book.

I also couldn’t figure out why people were so crazy about Beth. Maybe in a small town selection is limited?

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I exercised a little suspension of disbelief for the affair, thinking that maybe on some level, it stemmed more from anger at Frank than from desire for Gabriel. Her words as narrator suggest that she is forgiving and understanding of the circumstances around Bobby’s death, but perhaps deep down, she is not – and subconsciously wants to wound Frank as deeply as she can.

I agree that it was far-fetched that Gabriel and Beth, being soulmates and all, never reached out to one another after the weekend at Oxford. For a minute, I thought maybe there were going to be hidden or lost letters ala “The Notebook.” Gabriel’s mom was basically Rachel Adams’ mom in “The Notebook” – and a copy of similar rich and nasty mom characters in other books and movies as well. A bit of a trope.

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I agree. I didn’t love The Correspondent–on the whole it just felt so sad to me–but real life is more like the mistakes made by Sybil in that book than by the mistakes made by Beth in this one.

Except wealthy Gabriel had the world–and all its women–at his fingertips. Maybe for him, deep down, Beth was the choice because she came from the wrong side of the tracks and the relationship would irritate his mother.

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It could be to show Gabriel that she didn’t need him. That she was loved and wanted by someone else. But honestly, more than that, I think it was to make a stab at respectability for the sake of her parents, and to provide a father for the baby. It was 1968 after all, tough times to have a child out of wedlock, no matter how supportive your family.

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Just a side note on one of the head-scratching moments:

As I was leaving, my mother surprised me with a diaphragm she had requested from the doctor. We hadn’t discussed my sleeping with Gabriel, but I’d spent so many nights with him at the lake, she must have guessed (p. 57).

I don’t think you can “surprise” someone with a diaphragm and expect it to work. One size does not fit all and measuring by an MD would have been required. Whatever. Small complaint. At first, I wondered why she didn’t just go on the pill, which was quite prevalent by 1968 – but then I realized that if she had done that, the accidental pregnancy would not have occurred, which would have derailed the plot.

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This is what made her turning to Gabriel so unacceptable to me. She uses Frank, is grateful to him and avers she loves him but refuses to have a child with him claiming she needs more time with Bobby. And then cheats on him as soon as Gabriel is back.

I don’t like the infidelity but I dislike her dishonesty and selfishness more.

I understand her loving Gabriel’s son because she sees something of her lost son in him. There it should stop. The resumption of the affair bothers me but I guess it is a plot device to fuel Jimmy’s rage and move the story along.

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