Broken Country
by Clare Leslie Hall
★ Top 25 book of 2025 · #18 on Best Books of 2025
A woman, her farmer husband and her novelist childhood sweetheart are caught in a love triangle that ends in a murder trial. The story moves between the 1950s and the 1960s and was a critical and commercial success.
Best for: Historical fiction readers who enjoy love triangles and courtroom drama across two decades
Broken Country is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 2025, out of 30 2025 books that cleared our data bar.
What Broken Country is about
A farmer, his wife, and the novelist she loved as a girl form the triangle at the center of Clare Leslie Hall's historical novel. The story moves between two periods: the 1950s, when the three are teenagers, and the 1960s, when they are grown and their feelings have become far more complicated. A murder trial hangs over that history, so the reader is drawn to understand how these people arrived there.
It suits readers who enjoy a love story with real consequences, set in a rural English past. The novel was a commercial and critical success upon release, and a film adaptation was announced in April 2024.
Broken Country on the Best Books of 2025
Broken Country came out in 2025. Of the 30 books first published in 2025 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #18 on our Best Books of 2025 list.
Why it made the list: 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 10,189 views a month recently. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2025 list
- The Names Florence Knapp, #16
- Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil V. E. Schwab, #17
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Kiran Desai, #19
- The Knight and the Moth Rachel Gillig, #20
See all Best Books of 2025 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2024.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 64 want to read it, 3 are reading it now and 3 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Wikipedia: its article averaged 10,189 views a month recently.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 90 | 45% |
| Reader love | 17 | 20% |
| Being read right now | 87 | 15% |
| Attention | 70 | 20% |
Questions about Broken Country
When was Broken Country published?
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall was first published in 2025.
Was Broken Country one of the best books of 2025?
Broken Country is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 2025, out of 30 2025 books that cleared our data bar. 300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 10,189 views a month recently.
Why is Broken Country on the Best Books of 2025 list?
300 readers have shelved it on Open Library; its Wikipedia page averaged 10,189 views a month recently.
More of the best books of 2025
- The Secret of Secrets Dan Brown, #1
- Katabasis R. F. Kuang, #2
- Atmosphere Taylor Jenkins Reid, #3
- Onyx Storm Rebecca Yarros, #4
- If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Eliezer Yudkowsky, #5
- Wild Dark Shore Charlotte McConaghy, #6
See the full Best Books of 2025, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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