A sweet book about two people who are grieving who come together...coincidentally setting up a bookshop. 

The characters weren’t fleshed out, especially the female ones, who came across more like caricatures.

An easy beach read. With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

This book came into my life unexpectedly. I had no expectations whatsoever. I had never read any books by the author. I ended up being blown away by the loveliness of this tale.

Based in 1960’s rural Australia, a mismatched couple begin a relationship, however the baggage of their former lives creates a barrier between them. Hannah Babel, a native Hungarian has a dream of opening a bookstore in retaliation I presume for the Nazi book burning. Tom has never read a book in his life and she starts him off on the classics.  After falling in love they marry but their previous lives haunt their relationship, especially Hannah’s traumatic time at the hands of the Nazi’s in Auschwitz. Can they overcome their past and grow together, it’s worth finding out.  Must admit I found her time in the concentration camp more interesting.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers for an ARC of this book. Must admit I read this later than the publication date

I was intrigued by the title and while it was slow, I kept at it. However, early on I felt the characters didn't feel compelling enough and the story seemed disconnected as if there was no purpose to it. or maybe it simply didn't make sense to me.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the early copy. 

I decided to put it down. I could not connect with the writing style.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Hannah, a Jewish survivor from the Holocaust lost her son in Auschwitz, moved to Australia and has started The Broken Hearted Bookshop.  Tom Hope is broken hearted after his wife left him, taking his stepson whom he loves as his own. Tom and Hannah find themselves in love and deal with their issues. 

This wasn’t a bad book, and I think that a lot of people would really like it, but it just didn’t do it for me. I know that Hannah suffered unimaginable horrors, but I could not connect with her at all. The writing was beautiful, but I cannot enjoy a book to its fullest if I don’t connect with the characters.

Unfortunately I DNF'd this book 25% in. 
I was struggling to care for the characters and for me, with a book like this, I find that this should be something that comes naturally. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Other than this issue, I did find the writing really lovely and I have no doubt that the book will be a good one, however, I really do need to connect with the characters in a story otherwise I struggle to get through the book.

Thank you - we featured The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted on Caboodle (website and newsletter) in 2019! We look forward to working with you in 2020.

*Trigger warning for child abuse*
This isn’t a light, easy read by any means. Hannah has lost her entire family, including her husband and only child, to Auschwitz, and Tom has lost his wife not once but twice, the second time with her son Peter who Tom had raised since his birth.
Can these two wounded souls ever find the happiness they both deserve or will their pasts continue to haunt them? Are they even capable of getting the happy ending they both deserve?
The author's writing style was fluid, easy, and pulled me in. This is a story with love and laughter, guilt and grief, cruelty and kindness. Several characters display amazing resilience. All this is wrapped in beautiful descriptive prose. This is such a wonderful, moving read!

Please visit the Bookstore of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman. You will not be disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley, Robert Hillman and Faber and Faber Ltd for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

At times, The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted did feel a bit disjointed, and some characters were introduced who I'm not sure added much to the story. But overall, this was a transportive read and, by the halfway point, a page-turner.

This is a beautiful, slow-burn novel following Tom Hope. His wife Trudy has left him taking her son Peter with her. Peter isn’t Tom’s biological son but he’s raised him and he thinks of him as his own and so is devastated to lose him. Meanwhile there’s a newcomer to the town, Hannah and she is opening a book shop. The locals are intrigued, and Tom can’t resist stopping by. He and Hannah form a bond and slowly we learn each of their histories and what has made them the way they are. Hannah’s story is incredibly moving, I wasn’t expecting it but it really did make me feel emotional. This is one of those books that slowly gets under your skin, and after you finish reading it you’ll find you can’t stop thinking abouit. I really did love this one!

This book had so much more to it than I was expecting. You have Hannah, a holocaust survivor (who lost her husband and son at Auschwitz), Tom Hope, a sheep farmer whose first wife left him, Peter, the young son of Tom's first wife who is now living at "the Jesus Camp" and being physically abused, Trudy, the first wife who left the seclusion of the sheep farm for what she believed would be a better life and a few other secondary characters. The story takes place in Australia in 1968. This was actually a very sad story about survival, love and sacrifice. The bookshop was owned by Hannah, who as the second Jew in town, attracts the attention of many, including Tom. They fall in love and have a very happy relationship, that is until Peter shows up after running away from The Jesus Camp.

I enjoyed this book very much. I thought it was about a bookshop, but that is just a small sidestory. My heart broke for little Peter who just wanted to stay with Tom, the only father he knew. Hannah's story was also very sad, as to be expected from a holocaust survivor. Her fear of getting involved with a child after losing her own was understandable, yet also sad. The story is slow to start, but stick with it as it gets rolling after a bit and had me hooked after that. The characters were well-developed and the story itself is well-written. The characters we were meant to love, I loved and those who were despicable, garnered by hate. There is also a bit of an undercurrent of mental illness, especially where religious fanaticism is concerned. As I read this one my emotions were all over the place. There was happiness, sadness and extreme anger at various times. As I neared the ending, I saw a mother's love overcome her flaws, and she emerges to do what is right. An unexpected ending for sure. If you enjoy historical fiction, a story about human flaws and triumph, then pick this one up.

A book about a bookshop is always going to pull me in. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted* tells a story of a Jewish woman, escaping Europe after WWII to set up a bookshop in a small town in Australia. Tom, the local farmer, lonely after his wife has run off for the second time, goes round to help puts up new signage and shelves for the new bookshop. A friendship blossoms as well as reading recommendations as they try to create the best bookshop for the local community. Both think they can be happier again but their heart break from the past starts to bring cracks to their relationship. I was expecting a light hearted read but it's definitely more than that with the way Robert Hillman explores the impact of holocaust had on survivors and the way heartache can rip people's lives apart. This is a book about hope and second chances.

Thank you to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The three main protagonists in this story experience unspeakable loss and are brokenhearted, again and again.  I struggled with it, because I could not connect with any of these main characters - they felt very one-dimensional. The descriptions of life in rural Australia were beautifully written, but there was very little character development, to be able to better understand the characters and their thoughts and emotions. So much sadness, and so little bookshop.

This book brings you to tears and can make you laugh all within the same chapter!  This pulls on your heartstrings and you’re really rooting for the characters.  An enjoyable read for all!
Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Tom is a farmer in rural Australia in the 1960’s. He doesn’t have the best of luck when it comes to the women in his life. This book is definitely about love and loss, of nations and individuals. But I struggled to read it at times because I just couldn’t connect with one of the main characters. There were some parts of pure beauty in the storytelling, and then there were other points where it dragged and I would put it down and not pick it up again for days. At the end I felt like the whole book had been left mid-sentence, like it hadn’t been completed. Overall not really my cup of tea. My thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

4.5★
“Animals forgave his unease. The mare he’d bought for Trudy to enjoy obeyed him, never her.”

Tom Hope has trouble with hope. A nice-looking farmer with his own place, he knows he needs a wife, because that’s what people do. Trudy. Trudy is a high-strung girl who can’t settle in spite of everything Tom does to try to please her. The book blurb tells of her disappearance and her return, pregnant with another man’s child, as well as much of the following, so I don't think there are any spoilers. 

When Peter is born, they are a family. Tom lives on what was his Uncle Frank’s farm, running a few dairy cows, a flock of sheep, and managing an orchard, mostly single-handed. He’s an old-fashioned sort of bloke who’s liked well enough by those who know him, but Trudy and Peter are the first for whom he is special. That’s until she takes off again – she can’t cope – and leaves Peter on the farm. 

Tom adores Peter and vice-versa. Peter follows him and the dog everywhere, ‘helping’ as very small children do, while Tom fixes the tractor, takes engines apart, repairs fences, and goes fishing.

“He knew Trudy would come and take the boy away one day. The thought always came to him just at the height of his happiness. He chased it away by shaking his head and waving a hand in front of his face.”

Faced with that kind of threat, I think we’re all inclined to do the same – dismiss it. But when that day comes, and Trudy takes Peter to the Jesus people, he is beside himself with anguish. The author reveals his despair, his hopelessness, and his eventual decision to get on with life. He’s thirty-three.

While he’s in town at the shops, buying meat because he hates killing (but can’t bring himself to admit it to the butcher), he notices a new shop – looks like a bookshop from the cartons - and asks Juicy, the butcher about it.

First, though, here’s Juicy.

“The real Casanova of Hometown was Juicy, who gave himself to adultery so unapologetically that past lovers would take a moment at the counter to ask about the progress of more current affairs. And it was Juicy who got about the hills—not on a camel but in his bronze and black Monaro—advertising his perpetual adolescence.”

[A Monaro is an Aussie icon, a GM Holden muscle car, originally produced in the 1960s and 7os. I indulge myself by including this because we loved ours. :) ] 

[My Goodreads review includes a photograph of a black with bronze stripes 1969 HT Monaro.]

When Tom asks about the bookshop, Juicy and another customer discuss it.

“‘Hannah’s shop, Tom. Lady from the continent, as they say.’

‘Jewish,’ said Dulcie, as if the single word provided a catalogue of important information.

‘That’s right,’ said Juicy.‘A Jewish lady. From the continent. What, you’ve got some objections, Dulce?’ 

‘Me? No. Have I? I don’t know.’

Hometown is a small place. Dulcie’s not really sure what she believes about foreigners. Tom knows about the war, of course, but his people fought in the Pacific, as did many Aussies, so he doesn’t know much about the European campaigns and the Jews.

We are certainly going to know. The author takes us back to Hannah's early life and to Auschwitz, where her heart was broken. In Hometown, she is as bright and bubbly as a girl, but then she can slip into violent dark moods. This is not a mental disorder but a consequence of the war, losing her family and her own small son. 

The story is full of white – fabrics, hair, light – and it appears throughout the book. Stones and pebbles also appear often. The white is sometimes clean and lovely, but the white gloves of the preacher of the Jesus people are terrifying. 

The stones range from small lucky pebbles to the massive stones that are the basis of the huge Lutheran barn that features later in the book. Hannah made a promise a long time ago, and Tom contemplates her determination to stick to her word.

“What Tom didn’t say, didn’t think of saying, but believed, was that all vows could go to the devil. That’s what could be teased out, picked out from the pain in his heart. All vows could go to the devil, these stones set up as boundaries that endured the weather and the change of seasons and would not alter when all around them was altering each day; everything in the thriving world changing, but the stones unaltered.”

It is written in such a way that I felt the agony of the choices people had to make. Life is what life is, and hope, Tom Hope, endures. How he does it is beyond me.

Partly it’s because he is a man who works with his hands, a perfectionist who saves special timbers and gets absorbed in his work. At one point, this:

“By the time Hannah arrived, Tom’s face was a terrain of wood dust traversed by shallow valleys carved by sweat.”

Later:

“Tom, heart-sore as he so often was but finding solace in the painstaking, looked up from his workbench.”
. . . 
Happiness, for Tom, was a fugitive; when it appeared, it had to be roused to confidence, encouraged. Anything too gaudy and it might slip back into the shadows, perhaps forever.”

I must just add Hannah’s idiosyncratic way of shelving books. She shelved by title, to mix things up and make authors get along with each other.

“At the same time, she would ride roughshod over any rule in order to save a book from the jeopardy of an unsympathetic shelf companion.’The Making of the English Working Class’ was not expected to sit beside ‘The Making of Americans’, a book Hannah disliked. As a buffer between the two, she had placed a skinny soft-cover booklet, ‘Making Your Own Jam.’”

She is a strong-willed woman, but erratic. Trudy is weak-willed and erratic. Tom tries to run his property, his dairy, his orchards, his sheep and his household while mourning his loss just as Hannah mourns hers. 

Beautifully written. My only quibble is that I know what it takes to run a property, and I find it hard to believe anyone could manage so much so well in any circumstances, let alone these. But I suspend disbelief for a lot of good books, so I’m prepared to do it for this one.

I’ve never read anything by this author before, but. I’m so pleased NetGalley and the publisher, Faber and Faber, gave me a copy for review. The quotes may have changed.

I had expected a light, frothy read, but this is more than that. Set in Australia in the Sixties, this is full of heartache and emotion. Well written and full of well rounded characters, I should have loved it, but it was too downbeat in places for me to truly enjoy. This probably says more about me than about the book..

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tom is a farmer in Australia.  He doesn't necessarily have good luck with women.  He isn't very confident in himself and maybe the women sense this about him.  He does have a lot of love to give.  
The story started out slow but once Hannah came into the picture it picked up for me.

I chose not to review this book on my blog because being transparent, I didn't give it a chance to fully develop my interest.  I've been reading it for three days and I'm not quite halfway through.  It's made its way to my "did not finish" shelf as I believe life is too short to spend time reading books that just aren't working for you.   I may come back to it at another time.

The premise of the story still gives me hope that it could be a remarkable tale, but I found I couldn't connect with the writing style at this point in time.   My thanks to the publisher for providing a chance to review a complimentary copy of this title via NetGalley.