TEHRAN- “Broken Country” by British novelist Clare Leslie Hall has been published in Persian.
Amut is the publisher of the book translated by Rafi Rafiei Safai.
Published in 2025, “Broken Country” is a sweeping narrative that balances intimate romance with legal suspense.
The story is structured across two distinct eras, alternating between the 1950s and the 1960s. The narrative begins in 1955 in the rural landscape of Dorset, where seventeen-year-old Beth, a working-class girl, meets Gabriel, a boy from the landed upper class. Their whirlwind romance is fueled by shared intellectual ambitions and a mutual dream of becoming writers. However, their trajectories diverge when Gabriel leaves for Oxford University, leaving Beth behind in the village—a separation that fractures their relationship and leaves their shared dreams unfulfilled.
Thirteen years later, in 1968, the novel finds Beth in a precarious emotional state. She has set aside her poetic aspirations and is married to Frank, a sheep farmer. Their union is strained by the profound tragedy of losing their nine-year-old son, Bobby, two years prior; Frank’s inability to support Beth in her grief has created a cold void in their marriage. The arrival of Gabriel, now a bestselling novelist, disrupts this fragile status quo. Returning to the village with his own son, Leo, Gabriel represents a life that might have been. Beth finds herself caught in a complex love triangle, while simultaneously bonding with Leo, who serves as a heartbreaking reminder of her lost son. The emotional tension reaches a breaking point in 1969, when the murder of a local farmer leads to a high-stakes trial in London, thrusting those closest to Beth into the center of a legal storm.
The genesis of “Broken Country” was sparked by a visceral real-life encounter. Hall was inspired by an incident in which a farmer threatened her son’s puppy during a straying incident in a field of lambs. This moment of tension, contrasted with the sight of a young boy reminding the farmer of a lost child, provided the seed for the novel’s themes of loss and unexpected attraction. Hall’s commitment to authenticity is evident in her research; she spent extensive time with farmers, even learning to milk cows, to capture what she describes as the “beauty and brutality of pastoral life.” Furthermore, the novel’s transition from a contemporary romance to a period piece was a deliberate choice made two years into the writing process. To ensure the courtroom drama felt authentic, Hall spent a week observing proceedings at the Old Bailey.
Since its release, the novel has become a cultural phenomenon, spending twenty-six weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller List and being selected as a Reese Witherspoon book club pick. It earned nominations for the Goodreads Choice Awards and the Audie Awards, with critics praising the “fascinatingly complex” character of Beth and the “achingly beautiful” prose. The story’s reach is set to expand further through a film adaptation, produced by Sony’s 3000 Pictures and Hello Sunshine.
SAB/
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