Kat Harlton
Author Photograph: Oli Green
With special thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada.
Broken Country, the new novel by Clare Leslie Hall (out March 4, 2025) is 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.
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.
Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut, and has already been picked up for a film deal with Sony & Hello Sunshine.
I had the opportunity to chat with Clare about her new novel, structuring narrative, writing complex relationships and more.
Kat: What inspired you to write “Broken Country”?
Clare: The idea came in a rare flash of inspiration after a farmer threatened to shoot our son’s puppy. It was lambing season, and the dog had strayed into a field of sheep. Luckily, that didn’t happen, but a vivid scene came into my head. I could picture the farmer and his wife and a young boy running towards them, chasing after his dog. I knew the boy reminded them of the child they had recently lost and that there was a strong physical attraction between the boy’s father and the farmer’s wife. A readymade love triangle waiting to be written!
Kat: The novel toggles between the past and present. How did you decide to structure the narrative this way, and what challenges did it pose?
Clare: I chose a dual timeline because I wanted the reader to be alternately swept up by Beth and Gabriel’s passionate first love affair in the 1950s and then see her with her kind, loving husband, Frank, in the 1960s. I hope the book’s first section gives an insight into the impossible choice Beth faces between two very different men and two very different lifestyles.
Kat: Beth and Gabriel’s love story has deep roots and significant repercussions. How did you approach developing their complex relationship?
Clare: From the outset, I could feel the almost visceral passion between them; it was a meeting of souls and minds when they first fell in love. Gabriel and Beth epitomize the tender, unswerving devotion that often accompanies the first time you fall in love, the conviction you are meant to be together and always will be. The rest of their story – including some of the final twists – came to me in layers, deepening over time. The final twist, which I believe makes sense of the entire novel, came fairly late in the writing process (but no spoilers!).
Kat: The setting plays a crucial role in “Broken Country.” Can you tell us more about the village and its influence on the characters and plot?
Clare: The Dorset setting was inspired by the farmland that surrounds our house. I spent a lot of time with farmers when I was researching the novel – learning how to milk cows, lambing, harvesting – and it opened my eyes to the beauty and brutality of the pastoral landscape. So, I wanted the countryside to become a character in its own right. The village of Hemston is divided between the rich, aloof landowners like Gabriel Wolfe’s family and the ordinary farming folk like the Johnsons. That gave a feeling of tension and claustrophobia because everyone’s business is discussed in the shop and the pub. Just the right backdrop for a brewing forbidden love affair!
Kat: Leo, Gabriel’s son, reminds Beth of her own lost son. How does this connection impact the story’s emotional depth?
Clare: The fact Leo reminds Beth of Bobby is the trigger for the entire story. She’s a grieving mother who desperately misses her son, and Leo is also pining for his mother, who has recently moved to America. The close bond between the two of them paves the way for all those feelings which Gabriel and Beth have kept tamped down inside themselves to rise to the surface. Broken Country is about love in all its forms. It portrays the deep love between a mother and son and asks: where does all that love go when the son no longer exists?
Kat: Can you discuss the significance of the dog shooting incident and its role in setting the story in motion?
Clare: I think the dog shooting scene contains the essence of the whole novel. You have Beth, Frank and Gabriel, the trio at the heart of the story, plus Leo, the boy who reminds Beth of her own son, together from the start. And you have newborn lambs being attacked by a stray dog – those slaughtered lambs also represent Frank and Beth’s grief at the recent death of their son.
Kat: The novel examines the idea of identity and transformation. What message do you want to convey about the choices we make and the people we become?
Clare: At the start of the novel, Beth is a working class girl in the 1950s, who has unusual aspirations for her time and place: she is aiming for an Oxford education and a career as a writer. She’s ambitious and confident in her ability, but her goals are easily knocked off course by prejudice and circumstance. Even so, she builds a life for herself, which is ultimately far more rewarding than the one she anticipated. Hers is a story of female resilience.
Kat: Frank and Gabriel represent two very different aspects of Beth’s life. What do these characters symbolize, and how do they influence her choices?
Clare: Each man connects to and ignites a separate part of Beth’s personality. Gabriel is bookish and romantic and represents the intellectual life she craves. When Gabriel returns to the village as a successful author, he has everything Beth once wanted for herself. But Frank introduces her to farm life and the pastoral landscape, and it becomes integral to who she is as a person. Ultimately the choice for Beth is not ally herself to one man or the other, but to work out who she is and what matters to her most in life.
Connect with Clare Leslie Hall: https://www.instagram.com/clarelesliehall