The Short Version
If you loved Broken Country, you probably want more first loves that never quite end, English countryside, and secrets that blow up everything. Here are six books to read next, no spoilers.
Atonement
Number one: Atonement, by Ian McEwan, from two thousand one. In nineteen thirty five, at a grand English country house, a young girl misreads what she sees between her sister and the cleaner’s son, and changes three lives forever.
It has the same ingredients: class, a big house, a love story wrecked by a misunderstanding, and a past that won’t let go. If you only pick one, pick this.
Where The Crawdads Sing
Number two: Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, from twenty eighteen. Kya grows up alone in the marshes of North Carolina, and years later, she’s accused of murder.
Like Broken Country, it mixes a love story with a murder trial, and it was also a Reese’s Book Club pick. It’s the closest match in structure.
One Day
Number three: One Day, by David Nicholls, from two thousand nine. Emma and Dexter meet on their graduation night, and we check in on them on the same day every year for twenty years.
If you loved the slow ache of Beth and Gabriel, the could-have-been feeling, this is the one.
Normal People
Number four: Normal People, by Sally Rooney, from twenty eighteen. Connell and Marianne fall for each other at school in a small Irish town, across a class divide neither of them can ignore.
It’s about first love, class and miscommunication, told with a lot less melodrama. Great if Beth and Gabriel’s teenage chapters were your favorite part.
The Light We Lost
Number five: The Light We Lost, by Jill Santopolo, from twenty seventeen. Lucy meets Gabe in New York on September eleventh, two thousand one, and spends years torn between him and the life she builds with someone else.
It’s the closest match for the love triangle: a first love, a steady husband, and a choice that hurts either way.
Tess Of The D’Urbervilles
Number six: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, from eighteen ninety one. A poor country girl’s life is shaped by a rich family, a secret, and the men who claim to love her.
It’s set in Hardy’s version of Dorset, the same countryside as Broken Country. Read it for the landscape, and for one of the great tragic love stories.
How To Choose
So, how to choose? Want a big house and a misunderstanding? Atonement. Want a murder trial? Where the Crawdads Sing. Want years of longing? One Day. Want first love and class? Normal People. Want the love triangle? The Light We Lost. And want a Dorset classic? Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Your Turn
Tell me in the comments: what’s the saddest love story you’ve ever read? My review, ending explained and book club guide are linked below.
