This is Billie Voss with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending “Broken Country “by Clare Lesley Hall- a book that has found its way onto several “best of” book lists for 2025 and is quickly becoming a book club favorite.
In the small English countryside of Hemston, North Dorset in late 1960, Beth Johnson is the happy wife of a sheep farmer named Frank. Her husband is reliable and loving man, and she adores her close friends and family in their small-knit community. Life is not perfect for loving the couple, as they still heavily grieve the loss of their young son Bobby from two years ago. The story takes a dramatic turn when Beth’s first love, Gabriel Wolfe and his young son move back to the area. We, as the reader, are blown back in time with Beth as she revisits her girlhood of 1955 and the time before the anguish of knowing the loss of a beloved son.
The story toggles back and forth, from Beth’s young formative years, as well as early days of marriage to Frank and in real time with a court case involving a loved one for murder. Broken Country combines a tender romance with endearing characters, while gradually revealing secrets and building tension to an unexpected plot twist that certainly surprised me. Fans of “Where The Crawdad’s Sing” and “The Paper Palace” will surely delight in this thrilling romance.
Check out Broken Country by Clare Lesley Hall at your Sioux City Public Library.
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