Literary Fiction · Free kit
Broken Country
In 1968 rural Dorset, Beth Johnson lives a quiet life on a sheep farm with her husband Frank, still grieving their son Bobby's death two years earlier. When Gabriel Wolfe—Beth's first love who broke her heart as a teenager—returns to the village with his young son Leo, old passions reignite and buried secrets resurface. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel's orbit, a volatile confrontation erupts with deadly consequences, forcing impossible choices about love, loyalty, and sacrifice. A sweeping love story with the pace of a thriller, Broken Country explores the devastating cost of first love and the secrets that bind us.
“Everyone in the village said nothing good would come of Gabriel's return. And as Beth looks at the man she loves on trial for murder, she can't help thinking they were right.”
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Broken Country Icebreakers
Answer in under 30 seconds. These connect to the book’s themes without spoiling the story.
Personality Reveal
1. When something from your past resurfaces unexpectedly, are you the person who leans in or the person who runs the other way?
Personality Reveal
2. Are you more like Beth (drawn to what could have been) or Frank (committed to what is)?
Personality Reveal
3. Do you believe first loves are special because they were first, or do you think we romanticize them because they're incomplete?
Funny & Light
4. Have you ever reconnected with someone from your past and been shocked by how different they were—or how exactly the same?
Funny & Light
5. What's one decision you made young that completely altered the direction of your life?
Funny & Light
6. Have you ever visited a place that felt like it was holding your past—somewhere you couldn't escape the memories?
Would You Rather
7. Would you rather marry someone who loves you more than you love them, or be the one who loves more?
Would You Rather
8. Would you rather have a second chance with your first love or leave the past exactly where it is?
Would You Rather
9. Would you rather live in a small village where everyone knows your history or move somewhere no one knows your name?
Hot Take
10. Hot take: You can't truly move on from grief—you just learn to carry it differently. Agree or disagree?
Hot Take
11. Finish this sentence: 'The right person at the wrong time is actually _______.'
Hot Take
12. Hot take: If you're still thinking about your first love decades later, you never really let them go. True or false?
Personal Connection
13. What's one choice you made that you still wonder about—what would have happened if you'd chosen differently?
Personal Connection
14. Who is someone from your past you'd be terrified to run into, not because you hate them but because of what seeing them would stir up?
Personal Connection
15. Have you ever felt like you were living the life you were supposed to live, even if it wasn't the one you imagined?