This isn't about a bookstore, but it is about two broken hearted people who find one another and try to build a relationship, even as they are both hampered by their pasts. Set in 1960s small town Australia with flashbacks to WWII, it's told in the voice of the three main characters- Tom, Hannah, and Peter. Tom has been unlucky in just about everything. He's a sheep farmer who loved a woman, loved her son, and lost them both. Hannah lost everything that mattered in the Holocaust and she's moved to town in the hopes of a fresh start. Peter is the boy Tom raised as his own until his mother took him away to join a cult. How these three interact makes for a wonderful read. I loved the descriptions of the sheep farm, shuddered at the horrors faced by Hannah, and felt a tug at all of it. Hillman is a good story teller and his writing will pull you along. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. A good, at times sentimental but always heartfelt read.

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman is an interesting story. It begins with Tom Hope being abandoned by his wife, Trudy. When she comes back, she’s pregnant by another man. She stays long enough to deliver Peter, then leaves him with Tom. But she returns again after finding Jesus, and a cult. She takes Peter, Tom is devastated, then he meets Hannah, the owner of The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted. But Hannah, who survived Aushwitz has her own emotional baggage.

Ultimately, this is a story of love-between husbands and wives, and parents and children. All the characters are on a journey to find love-some are scared of love, some are determined to be with the ones they love, and some discover too late that they had found love but threw it away.

Overall, I enjoyed The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted. Thank you to the publisher for providing an e-copy for a review. #netgalley #thebookshopofthebrokenhearted

This book wasn't really for me. I struggled a little bit with it. I found the story a little too heavy at times and then also too lighthearted at others. It was hard to keep the right tone. Parts moved me, other parts annoyed me. A great concept, good writing... just not for me.

Lovely story. The memories of Auschwitz and the war were heartbreaking. Would love a sequel to find out how Peter coped as an adult.

This book had lots of things on my tick list - a bookshop, set in Australia, WW2, and romance. The characters and settings were strong. I loved Tom from the start, Hannah left me frustrated at times and I adored Peter. The writing was good, it didn't take long to fall into the "Australianisms"(I adored the fact that sheep are called woollies!) This book evokes lots of emotions and I will admit to a tear or two. I will be recommending it to friends and family.
Thank you Netgalley.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley & author.

what an emotional read. my heart broke for tom time and time again.

everyone should read this book. you won't regret it.

Unfortunately it wasn't my cup of tea. I couldn't connect to the characters and the book fell flat.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Sadly I struggled with this book, I really wanted to like this as the blurbed sounded so good. But I just was unable to engage with it.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I would have greatly enjoyed to read this book, but I somehow overlooked that it was being archived so early,

Very sad tale. I liked Tom. He seemed to be a good man, but nothing really happened for him until he met Hannah. It was a mistake to marry Trudy, but I love that Tom loved her son Peter even though he wasn't his father.
We get glimpses of Hannah's life before coming to Australia. She survived a WW2 camp but lost so much too.
It's sickening what happened to Peter at the"Jesus camp" at the hand of the Pastor. *Trigger warning for child abuse*

I was in the mood for a light romance, so I selected The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman as my next read. The colourful cover and the title led me to believe it was just that. Boy, was I wrong. The Bookshop is historical fiction novel set partially during the Holocaust that is also pretty heavy on the family drama. Definitely not a light read.

The story focuses on Tom, a farmer in Australia who hasn’t had much luck with women and who wants nothing more than to have his “son”, Peter back, and Hannah, a Holocaust survivor who has moved to Australia to spread her deceased father’s love of books. The two meet and fall in love, and while they do their past and present stories unfold. There were some things I enjoyed about the book a lot, especially the character of Peter, who brought a little more life to the story, there were also things that I didn’t care for.

First of all, I generally enjoy the star-crossed lovers trope, but this time I was not rooting for the couple. I didn’t feel like they were right for each other at all, and I thought they only made each other more miserable. On top of that, because of the secrets kept between them the relationship felt superficial even. As the story focuses on both their different lives, past and present, it sometimes felt like two different books. One net in late 1960s Australia and the other set during and shortly after the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. The mix-up of the contrasting worlds was exciting, but sometimes just too different to be part of the same book.

Secondly, whenever I’m reading a book by an Australian author it always takes me some time to get into the story and the way of writing. As a non-native English speaker the Australian accent is just not as familiar to me as the British or American ones. Therefore, the first couple of pages are always a struggle for me. However, I do really enjoy getting to know more about the Australian culture, so this was perfect for that.

Thirdly, it amazed me that the people in Australia at that time had so little knowledge of World War 2. Tom, for example, knew nothing about Auschwitz, had never even heard of it. Was this the way it actually was in the late 60s? I couldn’t really wrap my head around it to be honest. Very difficult to believe that something that is now considered common knowledge was not known to those people.

Even though The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted was not what I expected, I enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a story that is filled with relatable characters and hardship. Just know what you’re getting yourself into!

I'm trying to find a balance between my honest opinion of this title, and fulfilling my obligation of writing a review, As a book lover, I am drawn to any book with "bookshop", "library", "reader" in the title. I have also read numerous, horrifying , wonderous World War II novels, but the synopsis of this book did not accurately reflect its contents. I admire the author for revealing Hannah's experience as it related to her new life, but imagined the plot would be more focused on Australia, as indicted by the summary. Yes, the injustice of the concentration camps and their ongoing repercussions was impactful, but the physical and verbal abuse (torture) of a 7 year old boy put me over-the-edge. Violence of this nature in the name of one's faith took "broken hearted" to a deep, dark place.

I really wanted to love this book! But I definitely struggled with the pacing of the novel and found it just didn’t hold my interest at times. Tom Hope is such a kind, sad, and beautiful character. His life is full of so many heartbreaks, yet he just accepts them and moves on so he doesn’t bother other people with his troubles. His relationship with Peter from when Peter was a baby onward was my favorite aspect of the novel. The book definitely explores the Holocaust and its aftermath from a different perspective than most historical fiction novels that I've read. It is very well written and very moving at times. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

“Do you see how things can turn out? Do you see that that the world is big enough to make certain things possible? That thirty-six years ago the German Student Union could hold a rally in Opernplatz, Berlin, and burn twenty-five thousand books, many written by Jews, the students rejoicing in their festival of loathing, and now this, in Hometown. Hannah’s bookshop of the broken hearted, a thing of beauty.”

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is a novel by award-winning Australian author, Robert Hillman. It was a new business that had opened on Ben Chifley Square in Hometown, Victoria, in the spring of 1969. The sign suspended from the awning said Hannah’s Bookshop, but in her own mind, Hannah Babel thought of it as The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted, which is what was written on the small, hand-lettered Hebrew sign in the window.

When Auschwitz and war’s aftermath took from her two husbands and her only son, a broken heart was Hannah’s lot. Leaving Budapest at least allowed her to avoid the reminders. It was something that farmer Tom saw fleetingly in her eyes when he came to help out with welding and shelving. Tom was almost an accidental farmer: he’d inherited his farm near Hometown from his bachelor Uncle Frank, having previously worked for the Tramways as a mechanic, welder and panel beater.

But while farming wasn’t in his blood, he did well at it, caring more for his own sheep and fruit trees than his neighbours did theirs. Tom’s young wife, Trudy was a city girl who felt isolated and bored on the farm. It broke Tom’s heart the first time she left him, less than two years into their marriage. It wasn’t quite the same the second time she went; she’d found Jesus and left three-year-old Peter in Tom’s care. When she returned to take Peter away to the Pastor’s Church of Jesus Mercy, though, Tom wondered if the pain in his heart could get any worse.

But now, here was Hannah. Older than him, and obviously a bit mad (a bookshop, in Hometown?), but so bright and cheerful; there was no denying the attraction. Was this a chance at happiness? Was that even possible while Peter was away against his will? Would Hannah ever reveal the depth of her own heart’s ache?

Hillman tells his story through three narrative strands: Tom and Peter both relate events during the 1960s, while Hannah’s is a tale much-told, of the Jewish persecution during the war. He easily captures the era: popular songs and their singers; politics and current events; books, authors and publications; social attitudes like xenophobia; staid appetites and boring food choices all firmly cement this tale in the mid- to late sixties.

Hillman populates his novel with a marvellous cast of characters, both major and minor: the socially awkward but utterly reliable farmer Tom; the flirty butcher, Juicy Collins; weak and shallow Trudy (who eventually grows a spine); the well-organised CWA ladies; the laconic farmers; the pop-idol-obsessed teens; and the newcomer, Hannah, determined to get the town reading; each is believable and easy to imagine in a small Victorian country town. It’s a community ready with criticism, opinions and, when it matters most, support and caring, in equal measure.

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!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the review copy. I would like to give 4.5 stars.

This is a story around the life of Australian farmer Tom Hope - it covers life in the farming communities of Australia last century and also life during World War 2 in Europe.

This covers many topics, some of them heart breaking (prison camps, murder) and some of them beautiful (finding love and finding the perfect book).

Definitely worth reading in my opinion.

A quiet, sweet story. I enjoyed this one but it was a slow read and I had to put it down and pick it back up several times.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I went into this thinking that it would be like The Bookish life of Nina Hill and to me it just didn't live up to that.

*I received an ARC from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.
I enjoyed this quiet story, set in Australia, of a man unlucky in love and his wife, a Jewess survivor from the Nazi death camps. Hannah has lost her first child to the atrocities of Auschwitz, and made herself a promise to never love another child. Part of Tom's history includes a young boy named Peter, who can no longer stay with his mother. Although I enjoyed the first two-thirds more than the ending, I highly recommend Hillman's latest.

This is a beautiful story of friendship,,healing, and making peace with some past demons.
Tom Hope and Hannah Babel are an unlikely combination . Tom, a young and forlorn Australian farmer who has walked away from all thoughts of love, becomes acquainted with a quirky Hungarian woman whose hair is starting to gray, The moment he steps into her bookshop, the first shop to sell books in the small town of Hometown, there’s a shift in the air and a sense that his fate is about to be forever changed.
The writing felt off for me at times, but I loved these characters and their stories.

Robert Hillman has written a beautiful book set in Australia. Tom and Hannah are two people who find their way to each other, despite having their hearts broken by circumstances. Hannah has lost her husband and child Auschwitz and suffers from what we the reader know as PTSD, however people in the town think she's just mad. Tom has had his heart broken by an unfaithful wife and when these two people end up together you start to believe all could and should be better for both of them. Needless to say there is a lot more to the story but it would be an injustice to reveal more. The novel uses two different timelines and it works well in telling Hannah's back story (she is older than Tom) so that when she meets Tom her sad story has already been years in the making.
A wonderful story of broken hearted people (and there are others beside Tom and Hannah) who find their way to each other to heal and find love again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the opportunity to review this ARC.
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