Broken Country

A love story like no other – CHRIS WHITAKER, author of All the Colours of the DarkBroken Country destroyed me … it is set to be the love story of 2025. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Clare Leslie Hall’s writing is beautiful, her characters raw and real. The plot is perfectly crafted and the story really is a masterpiece. Sublime. – HEATHER CRITCHLOWA stone-cold masterpiece - heartbreaking, life-affirming, it’s a celebration of love in all its forms. I loved every line - Hall is an astonishing writer – KATE SIMANTSBeautiful writing you want to gorge on, characters who make your heart ache, an impossible situation. Grief, friendship, and the kind of love that makes you risk it all. All the stars. – LAURA PEARSONAn absolute triumph. This novel has all kinds of love - young love, forbidden love, brotherly love - all wrapped up in the most beautifully evocative descriptions of a pastoral landscape. Mistakes, bad choices and accidents conspire to create a slow-burn mystery with tragedy at its heart, yet there is hope too in this story of splintered loyalties and unbridled passion. Poetic, erotic and compelling, it is quite magnificent – VERONICA HENRYAn addictive story of an affair that reads like a thriller … a knotty and exhilarating story of a woman unable to make up her mind between two very appealing options. It’s a classic recipe, and Clare Leslie Hall executes it to perfection * Irish Sunday Independent *An absorbing novel about love and the weight of the past, this is a beautifully written read * Image *In this surprising romantic novel, there are decisions to be made that are heartbreaking and real, yet amid the gentle pastoral setting … it has all the pace of a literary thriller. A dazzling debut * Woman & Home, Book of the Month *This is a love story and a thriller - irresistible. Read it now before it hits your screens * The Gloss *This story of a love affair is so addictive it could be at home with the thrillers … A simmering book of secrets, scandal and devastating consequences * The i *Beautiful …So moving on the subject of how a tiny decision can have cataclysmic consequences * Good Housekeeping *Excellent … a vivid, forceful love story which plays out at the pace of a thriller * Irish Times *Wistful love meets murder … a tear-jerker * Grazia *Powerful * Sun *Tragedy, misunderstandings and guilt fuel abundant trysts and twists, but cool-headed meditations on grief and desire prove equally compelling – Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *Startling … a vivid, forceful love story that plays out at the pace of a thriller * Irish Times *I stayed up until 4am to finish it, something I haven’t done in years. It’s a page-turner, but also beautifully written – FLORENCE KNAPP, author of The Names

After several years of living and working in London as a journalist and writing Pictures of Him and Days You Were Mine, Clare, her husband and three children moved to an old farmhouse in Dorset. The house, the ancient fields surrounding it and the farmers who have a deep connection to the land inspired the setting for Broken Country.

Broken Country will be published in thirty-one countries.