Name: The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted
ISBN: 9780525535928

Robert Hillman

A gorgeously written, tender, and wise novel about love and forgiveness in 1960s Australia, in which a lonely farmer finds his life turned upside down by the arrival of a vibrant librarian.

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

Tom Hope doesn't chase rainbows. He does his best on the farm - he milks the cows, harvests the apples, looks after the sheep - but Tom's been lonely since his wife Trudy left, taking little Peter with her to go join the holy rollers. Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic smalltown bookseller: the second Jew - and the most vivid person - Tom has ever met. When she asks him to move in, and help her build Australia's most beautiful bookshop, Tom dares to believe they could make each other happy. But it is 1968: twenty-four years since Hannah and her own little boy arrived at Auschwitz. Tom Hope is taking on a battle with heartbreak he can barely even begin to imagine.

The Bookshop of the Broken-Hearted

Fatin Allen

Deceived by the title. Too dark and too sad for me to jump right back into fiction but if you like the intensity, then it’s for you. Took me a while to finish it. I even fell asleep while reading it twice.

I really like Tom, he’s a good guy and a decent human who can never avoid making mistakes. What’s good about him is that he thinks, reflects thoroughly and takes rational decisions for betterment. He’s selfless and empathetic.

I like the personal touch on the historical side of the story. Exposed me to the depth of impacts that war imposes on people. Deaths. Escape. Survival. Life after war.

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

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