The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

by Robert Hillman

Tom Hope doesn’t think he’s much of a farmer, but he’s doing his best. He can’t have been much of a husband to Trudy, either, judging by her sudden departure. It’s only when she returns, pregnant to someone else, that he discovers his surprising talent as a father. So when Trudy finds Jesus and takes little Peter away with her to join the holy rollers, Tom’s heart breaks all over again.

Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic smalltown bookseller: the second Jew—and the most vivid person—Tom has ever met. He dares to believe they could make each other happy.

But it is 1968: twenty-four years since Hannah and her own little boy arrived at Auschwitz. Tom Hope is taking on a batttle with heartbreak he can barely even begin to imagine.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Books About Books, Australia, Romance, Historical, Book Club

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Robert Hillman is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction and biography. His autobiography THE BOY IN THE GREEN SUIT won the Australian National Biography Award for 2005. His critically acclaimed MY LIFE AS A TRAITOR (written with Zarha Ghahramani) was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2008 and was published widely overseas.
After many years of teaching in high schools and university, Robert Hillman now works as a full-time writer. He has three children and lives in Warburton, in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

Reviews

[Mary Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Broken Hearted Stars

The setting takes place in Australia and the year is 1968, twenty four years since Hannah and her own little boy arrived at Auschwitz. The book also goes to the past about the horror of what happened to her and her little boy in the concentration camps.

Tom Hope is a farmer. His wife Trudy leaves him and he is so broken hearted. He really loved her. She then comes back to him after she is pregnant by another man. Then she decides to leave him again to go to the Jesus camp. She takes her son with her and Tom was the perfect father for Peter. My heart ached for him.
Then there is Hannah Babel who owns a book shop in the town.

I really loved this book and I am loving this genre more and more. This one is a dark one. I didn't care for the book shop parts in the book, if you want to read this one because you think it's about a bookshop then this one is not for you. This one is more for historical fiction lovers, and I think thriller fans might enjoy this too.

It did have a slow burn in the beginning but after about 20 % the book picks up and I couldn't put it down after that. I loved the characterization of the characters. They were very well developed. My heart went out for Hannah. It tore at my heartstrings. She went through so much horror at the concentration camp at Auschwitz. I thought she ended up being a strong woman, since she had so much baggage. My favorite character was Tom. My heart ached for him. He was a good man. I loved Peter, Trudy's son. Of course I hated the pastor and the pastor's wife and really disliked Trudy. I fell in love with some of the characters but there were unlikable characters too. There were a lot of broken hearted characters.

This one was an emotional read and tore at my heartstrings. I had so many different feelings and I thought the ending was so uplifting. It really made me feel good inside. It was such a beautiful loving ending. It was just the perfect ending.

This was a Traveling Sister read and it is always fun to discuss a book that you love.

I want to thank Edelweiss, Penguin Publishing, for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful love story about two very different people, a farmer from Australia and a heartbroken Hungarian woman who is a Holocaust survivor. It’s also a story about the love that a man has for a young boy who is not his son by blood, but is his family in so many other ways, by their connection, by his care of the boy and the love that the boy has for him. This is not a light read . It’s about traumatic events in people’s lives, certainly the holocaust and Hannah’s losses and survival of Auschwitz, but also some traumatic events in young Peter’s life. In spite of the dark things that happen, it’s about hope that comes with love.

Tom Hope comes across as an almost pitiful character at first, blaming himself when his wife leaves him not once , but twice. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him when she comes back after the second time to get her son Peter to take him with her to the “Jesus Camp”, what seems to be an almost cult like community. Tom is heartbroken and lonely now that Peter has been taken from him, but he has no recourse since he’s not Peter’s father. Along comes Hannah Babel, beautiful, full of life and exotic in some ways to the people of Homeland when she opens a bookstore. She has a goal to sell twenty five thousand books, “the approximate number of books burned in Berlin on May 10, 1933”. What an amazing thing to want to do! I was so taken with how she could seem so happy and so exuberant after I started with her past narrative which alternates with the present. We learn about her losses and what she has endured , but there will be moments of deep sadness amidst the joy she brings to Tom. I loved the relationship that develops between them and I was heartbroken when it seemed that Tom would have to make a choice between the two people he loved. You can probably read more about the plot in some other reviews, but rather than discuss more of the plot, I’ll just leave it that this book was so much more than I expected.

I received an advanced copy of this book from G.P. Putnam’s Son through Edelweiss.

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story starts in 1968 Australia, with Tom Hope grieving his wife Trudy, who left him. Later Trudy comes back, pregnant by another man and Tom takes her back. Trudy has no love for her son Peter but Tom loves the boy as if he were his own, raising him for three years, while Trudy is still with him, and then for two more years, after Trudy leaves him again, alone to raise Peter. For Peter, Tom is his father and he loves Tom with all his heart. Then Trudy takes the boy and Tom's heart is broken, not for Trudy who he has no love for anymore but for Peter, the boy he loves as much as he could love his own blood. Peter's heart is broken too, the place he is taken is not a good place and he dreams of being with Tom again.

Into Tom's life comes Hannah, 12 years older than him, survivor of Auschwitz and other horrors. All of Hannah's relatives died during the persecution of her people and Hannah, although she survived, can never forget what she saw, heard, knew of those times. Heartbreaking losses that have have affected her mental and emotional health. She vows to never love another child after losing her own boy, the first day at Auschwitz.

Hannah and Tom fall in love despite having to deal with Hannah's moods which are more than moods. They are really black spells when she is lost to Tom, as she relives past horrors. This story is a slow story and it's telling is in a different style than most stories. It almost feels as if we are in Tom's thoughts or Hannah's thoughts and sometimes some of the words get past me but I liked this book a lot. There is so much sadness and death and as strong of a man as Tom is, I had to wonder if losing Peter and being married to Hannah, was going to break Tom.

I know this book won't be for everyone but I liked it. I liked the people, the good people, not the religiously obsessed crackpot people that Peter was sent to live with. I also dreaded the parts of the book with animal death but I know that comes with living on a farm so it had its place in the book. I felt for the people in this book, especially for Tom and Peter and for Hannah too, who lost everything, including her mind but still could imagine good things happening.

Published April 9th 2019. Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Dorie - Cats&Books :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a sucker for any books that take place in, around or about a bookshop. I also seem to be on an “Australian roll” having recently read Jane Harper’s “The Lost Man”. In the end, however, this book wasn’t anything that I had envisioned.

There are definitely broken hearts in the story but not that much about the bookshop. Tom Hope is an Australian farmer and has had some terrible times mainly because of his choice in partners. He is a pretty quiet guy and when he meets Trudy who is young, vivacious and pretty, he is surprised that she will even look at him. They date, fall in love (well at least Tom does) and get married but within a few years Trudy is fed up with the farming life and wants more out of life, and one day just leaves. Tom is heartbroken. Within a year she comes back to Tom, pregnant with another man’s child and Tom takes her back. There is a lot of coming back in this book! I won’t go through the entire plot with Trudy as there is another woman we must focus on.

Hannah was a hard character for me to understand or to even relate to in any way. She was a Holocaust survivor who has had her heart broken as she lost both her husband and son at Auschwitz. When she survives the camp she decides that Australia might be the best place to settle. She moves to the small town where Tom lives and decides to start a bookshop, she hires Tom to build shelves for her. Tom, not yet quite over Trudy, begins to have feelings for Hannah. It is never really clear to me why but Hannah is very clearly pursuing Tom, maybe it is because he is settled and a good man? That’s a question that still remains in my mind. After only a few months, they marry.

Some happy years pass but then Peter, Tom’s adopted son, is finally returned to him from Trudy and the “Jesus Camp” where he had been living.The circumstances surrounding this, how his mother was able to take Peter away, I will leave for you to discover. This sort of came out of nowhere for me. Now there is the decision to be made, Can Hannah who lost her own little boy, come to care about Peter???? She has many questions she has to answer for herself and more explaining to do to Tom.

I never quite connected to any of the characters in this book. Trudy was just a user of people, anything to get what she thought she wanted. With Hannah, I was never sure, even at the end how much she loved Tom or if this is just the life that she wants to live. Tom comes across as a good but weak man, he keeps taking these women back even after they have left him, one several times.

This was a slow read for me. I did better when I was reading this for just a couple of hours and then coming back to it the next day. It is not a happy book, in many places it is extremely sad. I’m not sure about the message that the author was trying to convey with this book. I felt as though I was deeply entrenched with one story line only to be pulled away while Hannah relives her past life in Auschwitz and even before. I felt as though these two stories were only connected by the characters and definitely not because there were any similarities in the lives that Hannah and Tom had lived so far. I was also surprised that Tom would marry a woman so much older than him, who has already told him she will not have any more children. Tom knew how much he loved Peter and having a child around.

I think the writing in this book is excellent with great descriptions of the land, the town and the residents. I will look forward to the next book

I received a copy of this ARC from the publisher through Edelweiss.

[Canadian Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright. So here’s the deal with this one. I loved half of it but couldn’t connect with the other half. Two stories take place. The first one, Tom as a young man, marries a woman who leaves him, then returns with a child not hIs and leaves him yet again only to return to him 2 years later to take her son.
How much abuse can a man take?
The 2nd part - he marries Hannah, a woman several years older, who has survived Auschwitz but has lost 2 husbands and her only son. She desperately tries to hold things together but it’s undeniably a difficult task. Two broken hearts trying to mend each other.

These could have been 2 separate stories as they just seemed too disconnected. Hannah was an unlikeable character. Eccentric, on the verge of going mad.
And Tom, a local yokel. Loveable but a little ignorant about the bigger world outside of his farm but an honest heart.
Love the cover and the title but overall, missed the mark for me. Not sure the author captured the female voice.
BUT this is my opinion only and there are others who rave.
3.5⭐️

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 solid stars for a story of tragedy and loneliness with a good ending.
Tom Hope lives by himself on his farm, in Victoria, Australia. He marries Trudy, a faithless irresponsible woman who leaves him for a year. She returns, pregnant by another man. She leaves again, but doesn't take her baby. Tom raises the child for 3 years. Trudy returns again and takes the child. Tom meets Hannah, a Holocaust survivor. How these people interact makes for an uplifting story. I read it in 2 days.
I enjoyed this book and recommend it to Kristin Hannah fans.
Some quotes: "The language that Tom had studied on the window of the shop, the language that had so perplexed him, was Hebrew. Translated into English, it would read:
To the God of the Hopeless,
Bless this shop."
"And so Hannah's first choice of a name for her business remained known only to her:
Bookshop of the broken hearted."
Thanks to Faber & Faber for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Hope awakens at 4 AM daily to milk the cows and then check on the woolies. The Australian farm he owns in the small town of Hometown, Victoria was an inheritance. Tom is quiet and soft spoken, awkward with people. His steady companion is his dog, an old heeler named Beau. Tom has discovered "...what a hit-or-miss business it was being married." His second wife Trudy, a city girl unhappy with farm life, abandoned him. One year later, Trudy resurfaced, pregnant by another man. Tom took her back agreeing to raise the child. "...the sense of failure that troubled him [Tom] became too much to bear: not much of a farmer, poor husband, but he'd made a good job of being a father." While little Peter felt his mother's lack of love and affection, he called for Tom, ''...the man who was not his father."

Farming became even more challenging when Trudy departed again leaving three year old Peter with Tom. Tom had to supervise the small boy but still shear his sheep. When milking the cows, Beau served as the babysitter. Peter is now five years old, has his school uniform ready, and is prepared for his first day of school. Trudy arrives and whisks her son away. She has joined a cult. Tom has no legal rights. He is not Peter's father. Both Tom and Peter are brokenhearted.

A trip to town to combat sheer loneliness holds a surprise for Tom. A vacant store is being turned into a bookshop. Hannah Babel, bookshop owner and a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor, is determined to succeed. "...you could probably claim that not a half dozen people in Hometown had ever opened the cover of a book and get [got] away with it." Hannah undeterred said, "They will read. They will come to Madame Babel. Don't worry." She hired Tom to build shelves to hold her voluminous stock of books for sale. She admired his expertise in carpentry. "Hannah...was interested in him...He had never before in his life been made to feel interesting." "He had accepted that Hannah was a fruitcake. It didn't ruin his liking for her..." He was in love! However, "...he grasped that she was suffering...that huge smile...but she was suffering."

The three main protagonists in this tome, time and again, experience unspeakable loss and are brokenhearted. Tom is in love with Hannah but sometimes "every trace of tenderness had left her." In May 1944, Hannah, husband Leon and three year old son, Michael were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz. Hannah has vowed never to love a child again. Peter and Tom have an amazingly strong bond. Risks taken by Peter are to no avail. What is to become of these damaged souls?

"The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted" by Robert Hillman encompasses a myriad of deep feelings, feelings of love, loss and the beauty of the land. A heartfelt read. Tissues required. Highly recommended.

Thank you First to Read and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and review "The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted".

[*TUDOR^QUEEN* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Penguin Publishing Group for providing an advance reader copy via Edelweiss.

The success of this story hinges upon the appealing character of Tom Hope. The story takes place in a farming community in Australia called Hometown. Tom lives and works on the farm left to him by his Uncle Frank. Tom's good at a lot of things, but most of all, he's a good man. He can cook a wonderful breakfast and dinner, but can also build bookshelves, raise bountiful crops, tend to the "woolies" (sheep) and other livestock with more of a caring heart than most. And when his wife Trudy suddenly leaves him and just as suddenly comes back...and confesses that she's pregnant by another man...Tom summons his quiet strength and does what his heart tells him to do...the right thing. He raises the little boy Peter as if he's his own, and he loves him just as much anyway. When Trudy leaves him for a second time, she leaves the boy behind for Tom to raise. It seems impossible how Tom's going to run the farm by himself while also watching a little boy, but they both thrive within their idyllic world of love. Then Trudy suddenly comes back again, having joined some kind of religious commune, demanding her boy back.

Now Tom is alone, and when he delves into town to visit the general store he's hoping to avoid the questions on the minds of the watchful (but caring) neighbors in this close-knit farming community. Then Tom notices that a store on on the end of the shopping strip that never does well once again has a new occupant. He's intrigued by a paper affixed to the front door in the Hebrew language. Translated into English, it reads: "To the God of the Hopeless, Bless this shop." It was to be a bookshop, and the very attractive but quirky Hannah Babel was its proprietress. She always dressed to the nines as if on a modelling runway, and at forty-five and with just a touch of gray, she was still stunning.

Tom receives a note on the farm from Hannah requesting him to do some work on the bookshop, such as hanging the sign and building some bookshelves. It's clear from the start Hannah finds Tom quite attractive, and with her preening, touchy-feely flirtations, they soon become lovers.

The conflict simmering in Hannah's past is that she is a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz. The horrors she experienced are so painful that she cannot speak of it. She lost her husband and little boy Michael in WWII. She is very strong and a survivor, but she cannot share this part of herself with Tom. Once Tom becomes romantically involved with Hannah, there are dueling chapters of the past and present where we experience the atrocities of the Holocaust with Hannah. I must admit that I was troubled reading the WWII retrospective chapters of Hannah and did not find these enjoyable, though they obviously were intrinsic to this story.

Will Peter ever be returned to Tom? Will Tom and Hannah marry? Will Hannah's unbearable pain of losing her own son prevent her from opening her heart to another child? Follow the story yourself to its intensely emotional but satisfying conclusion.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in rural Australia in the 1960’s.
This story is about a lonely farmer Tom Hope, who is betrayed by his wife Trudy after she leaves home and comes back again pregnant with another mans child.
This is also the story of Peter... the son born to Trudy that Tom loves and raises as his own and is then taken away when Trudy leaves again.. but with the boy.
Also..this is the story of Hannah, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust,about fifteen yrs older then Tom..a vibrant woman, a bookseller, who lost a son of her own years before at Auschwitz.
A story of how people can rise above tragedy to find joy.
I enjoyed this!

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about broken hearts but also about hope and I am sure the author named his main character Tom Hope for that reason.

I really became attached to Tom during the course of this book. He starts out seeming to be a quiet, weak sort of man but the soft, unassuming side of him turns out to hide huge strength of character. He also seems to be capable of almost anything, turning his farm into a success, taking on the evil Pastor at the "Jesus Camp", and earning the devotion of a small boy who is not even his own son.

The other characters did not appeal so much. Trudy was just awful until she redeemed herself amazingly towards the end. Hannah was impossible to understand. Everyone judges her as 'mad' and maybe she is considering the awful events she survived. However she also comes across as not an especially nice person and I wanted better for Tom.

Nevertheless the story grabbed me and I enjoyed the whole book. The child abuse scenes are difficult to read but the eventual conclusion was satisfying. This is not a light read but it is a worthwhile one.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to admit that most readers who love books would be intrigued by the title. Bookshops and libraries – my go to place.

So, naturally when I saw this book in the library, I had to try it out.

This is a story about broken hearts but also about hope.

I imagine that the author named his main character Tom Hope for that reason.

The story takes place in a farming community in Australia called Hometown. It is based in 1968, but chapters do take us back to war time, Auschwitz. Need I say more.

The overall story encompasses a myriad of deep feelings… of love, loss and the beauty of the land.

It is a story of tragedy and loneliness with a good ending.

There were some difficult sections to get through, thus it is not a light read but it is a worthwhile, heartfelt one.

Tissues required.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not so much about a bookshop but about two broken-hearted people who find each other. It's a wonderful tale about the power of love, hope and forgiveness in a small Australian town.

Tom Hope is a quiet, gentle, modest man. An excellent farmer who cares about his animals and his trees but not the extrovert, outgoing companion that his wife Trudy would wish for. A city girl, she soon runs off but returns later pregnant with another man's baby. Tom is a natural father and comes to love the child, Peter, but Trudy eventually takes off again to live in a 'Jesus Camp', eventually returning to take Peter to live with the cult when he is five. By this time Tom and Peter had forged an unbreakable bond and the separation is devastating for both of them.

When Tom is asked by a newcomer to town, the exotic, extroverted Hannah Babel to build bookshelves for her new bookshop, he isn't expecting to ever fall in love again. Particularly not with an older woman, a Hungarian Jew who lost her husband and son in Auschwitz. Hannah is educated and very well-read. Through her bookshop she dreams of selling twenty five thousand books, the number publicly burnt by German students in Berlin on May 10, 1933. Tom left school early and has little knowledge of literature, but in Hannah he discovers a warmth and passion he has never known. She has, however, told him that after the pain of losing her son, she could never let herself love a child again.

This is a slowly developing tale in which the peace and beauty of the rural Australian setting is set against the horrors of the Holocaust and the cruelty of Peter's life with the harsh religious cult that his mother has joined. The characters are beautifully drawn and heartbreaking in their grief - little Peter in his yearning to be back on the farm where he is safe and loved by Tom, Hannah with her grief for her son that is almost too huge to face and Tom with his aching to make Hannah and Peter feel cherished and happy again. A wonderful read. 4.5★

With thanks to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for a digital ARC to read

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. :) ]

A 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.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“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. Text Publishing offers a Great Read Guaranteed or your money back, but this is such a wonderful, moving read that it is unlikely they’ll need to give many refunds.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quixotic little book had me at hello. Set in Australia in the 1960s, it tells a story of love, loss, and redemption in a way that I’ve never seen anywhere from anybody. I’ve finished reading other books since I finished this one, and yet I am still thinking about Tom Hope.

Huge thanks go to Net Galley and Putnam Penguin for the review copy. It will be available to the public April 9, 2019.

At the outset, Tom’s last name seems cruelly ironic, because the guy can’t seem to catch a break. Trudy, his perpetually dissatisfied wife, up and leaves him with no warning and no discussion. Just takes off. Tom is heartsick, but a ranch is still a ranch, and so he woodenly goes through all of the tasks—milk the cow, herd the woolies—that must be done. He is such a sad fellow, and he berates himself for not having done more to make that woman happy and comfortable. The ranch is not long on frills; an indoor shower would be nice, and a big old bathtub would be even better.

He actually makes lists.

But then one day Trudy comes back. She’s been gone for a whole year, and now she’s pregnant. Say what?

When Tom takes her back, I look at the things he has said and done and wonder whether he is maybe a little on the simple side. But just as the question takes hold in my mind, we hear people in town talking about him. One of them tells another that after all, Tom Hope is not a stupid man. And so again I wonder why he lets her back in the house. But he does. He welcomes her. Sssh, he says to her self-recriminations, don’t worry about it. You’re back now.

Trudy has the baby, and then Jesus calls her and she leaves again—without the baby. So there’s Tom. You can see what I mean about that last name. Hope? What good has hope done for him so far? He’s stuck raising an infant while he runs a ranch, and it’s exhausting, nearly impossible, but he adores this little boy that isn’t his, just loves him for years, right up until the time Trudy decides that Jesus has called Peter to come to the religious compound with her.

So when the flamboyant Hannah, a woman older than himself, a Hungarian immigrant, comes to town and decides she likes the looks of Tom, all I can think is, thank goodness. Let the poor man have a life post-Trudy and post-Peter. There’s nothing like a fresh start. But Hannah comes with baggage of her own, a refugee who’s experienced the horror of Auschwitz.

Before I requested access to this novel, the Holocaust reference in the description very nearly kept me away. Younger readers less familiar with this historical war crime need to know about it. The survivors are mostly dead and gone, and there are revisionists trying to deny it, or to say that stories of it are greatly exaggerated. So yes, there’s a need for its inclusion in new literature, and yet I feel as if I have had my fill. But the other piece of it—Tom, the ranch, the child, the romance—won the day, and I am so glad I decided to go for it. And indeed, it’s not a Holocaust story; instead, we see how the horror through which Hannah has lived informs her present day choices.

So yes, Hannah is an interesting character, and the bookshop is hers, but the story is really about Tom. One heartache after another comes his way, and he deals with every single one uncomplainingly, telling those that love him that he’s fine. Really. At times I want to push my way into the pages to say to him, what the hell? Go ahead and throw some dishes or something. You are entitled to your anger. But instead, he forges stolidly on, not because he is free of pain—we can tell that he isn’t—but because there’s no use in burdening others as well. And as one violent act after another works its way into his experience, the story builds, and builds some more, and we have to wonder when he will draw the line and say, that’s it. Enough. And the way Tom develops from the outset to the end is so resonant, so believable.

This novel is one of the warmest, most affectionately told stories that I have read in a long time. It’s never mawkish or overly sentimental; Hillman strikes the perfect balance. I would read more of his work in a heartbeat, and I highly recommend it to you. If you can find it at a discount, that’s great, but if you have to pay full cover price, you won’t be disappointed.

[Lisa Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up from 3.5 stars.

First of all, let's be clear, while the title refers to a bookshop, this novel isn't particularly about the bookshop. There's a whole subgenre of bookstore fiction, sure to warm the hearts of booklovers everywhere. This isn't one of those books.

Set in Australia, The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted tells the story of Tom, a lonely man who's been unlucky in love. Tom is a sheep farmer who lives a contented, quiet life, until his wife Trudy deserts him and takes away Peter, the son of his heart if not his body. When Tom meets Hannah, it's like he gets a new ray of sunshine in his life, and the two form a passionate, unbreakable bond. But Hannah's past haunts her in ways Tom can't quite understand, and when Peter reenters their lives, it may be more than Hannah can stand.

The story is truly affecting in parts, and I came to love Tom quite a lot. He's sweet and good and loving, although he does seem to allow himself to roll with the punches rather than standing up to the people and events that hurt him. Tom's relationship with Peter is lovely, so when he's taken away, it is a heart-breaking development. The story of Peter's experiences at "Jesus Camp" is horrible -- he's essentially trapped there by a mother who's caught up in pastor's cult-like community, and I was really upset by Peter's suffering and the length of time it takes for him to finally be rescued.

We hear about Hannah's past through chapters scattered throughout the book that show her experiences in the concentration camp and the years afterward. Of course, she's deserving of great sympathy, but there are times with Tom and Peter that's it hard to like her.

Overall, this is a quiet and moving book. I loved the descriptions of Tom's farm and the Australian setting and landscapes. The writing is slow and underspoken, with a brevity that somehow makes the emotion harder to access at times.  The juxtaposition of ranch life in Australia and memories of the Holocaust makes for an unusual mix, but it works. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is an unusual work of historical fiction, definitely worth checking out.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. Full review at Bookshelf Fantasies.

[Cookie M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the window of Madam Hannah Babel's bookshop in a small Australian town there is a little hand lettered sign in Hebrew stating, "The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted."
Who are the Broken hearted? Hannah is one. She survived the horrors of the Holocaust, is a widow twice over, and lost her young son in Auschwitz.
Her current husband and deep love is another, his former wife left him suddenly, and took his stepson, Peter, a boy Tom had grown to love as his own.
The third broken heart belongs to Peter, torn from the strong father figure of Tom, forced to follow the whims of his unstable mother, which lead to his being raised in a physically abusive religious cult.
Robert Hillman's writing style invites you in to Tom Hope's world. You become part of his farm from the first page. His sheep call to you, the neighbors and townspeople endear themselves to you. You are charmed.
And then, abruptly you are dragged into 1940's Hungary, where Hannah, a brilliant, gifted Jewish woman has her life brutally destroyed by the Nazis.
Hillman takes you back and forth, from the meeting of these two unlikely friends through to a crisis that causes both of them to question vows given and taken.

I opened this book and was captivated from the start.

I received this book free from Putnam and Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not quite what I expected. I expected more about a "bookshop" since that is what the title implied. I think I may have called this book "The Healing of the Broken hearted."
We meet 3 main individuals: Tom, an Australian farmer, who is just so likeable and lovable, whose heart has been broken by his wife; Hannah, a 47 year old woman, whose heart has been shattered by her imprisonment at Auschwitz; Peter, Tom's wife's son, who loves Tom with his whole heart.
This is a character driven novel, which I love. The author writes beautifully and has definitely brought to life these people that we grow to care about. I found that I cared the least for Hannah.
This book touches on love- love of people and love of the land. It touches on loss and the road to healing. It does include books of course and how reading and books should never be taken for granted.
A lovely read!

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom is a farmer and lives outside a small town in Australia, he has been unlucky in love and his wife has left him. When his wife returns he finds out that she is pregnant with another mans child. Tom brings this child up as his own and loves the boy dearly.
After his wife goes away for a second time Tom meets Hannah a survivor of Auschwitz and the new owner of the towns bookshop he finds love again.
I really like the character Tom and his son Peter and very much enjoyed this book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Faber & Faber for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Tonstant Weader · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Bookshop of the Brokenhearted begins beautifully with simple prose that reminds me of Kent Haruf’s Plainsong. I was in love by the end of the first chapter. Tom Hope is a farmer besotted with his wife Trudy and their child Peter. His simplicity is mirrored by the language. In the third chapter, we meet the exciting, educated bookseller, Hannah, who has moved to their rural Australian town to open a bookstore.

Then it all went downhill as the story became increasingly complicated by extremes. It’s not just that Trudy was faithless, but she was faithless from the first. It’s not just that she walks out on Tom, she walks out on Peter who turns out to be fathered by someone else, not Tom. It’s not just that Tom loses custody of Peter to her, but it happens after he’s raised Peter alone while Trudy was feckless and promiscuous. It’s not just that Trudy finds Jesus, she joins a cult. It’s not just that Tom finds new love, he finds a woman who seems to worship and need him. It’s not just that Hannah lost her husband and child, she lost them in Auschwitz. It’s not just that she lost one husband, she lost two. It’s not a Jesus cult, it’s an abusive Jesus cult.

I know it may feel like those are big spoilers, but they are not. There’s much more to the story of Trudy, Peter, Tom, and Hannah and whether any of them find happiness. This is not a story about things that happen so much as a story about how people cope.


I alternated back and forth with The Bookshop of the Brokenhearted loving the spare prose while increasingly angered by the melodramatic excess of the plot. It didn’t help that this book invalidated my long-true axiom that every book with “bookstore” in the title would be wonderful. That made it feel like a betrayal. It has “bookstore” in the title, how can it be so disappointing?

The thing is the many plot elements that motivate Trudy and Hannah one way or another could have been accomplished with less extreme means. Trudy could have matured to be less selfish without some abusive religious fanatic pushing her out. Hannah could have armored her heart by losing her husband and child in an accident. It really didn’t have to be The Holocaust. We need to remember The Holocaust so it is not repeated, but we do it no honor by using it for emotional manipulation. I think if it had been just the abusive cult or just the Holocaust, I would have just enjoyed the purity of the language, but with both, it felt like Hillman did not trust us to feel for the characters if their experiences were not extreme. One of the books that left me most emotionally wrecked was about the death of a child in a simple car accident. There were no evil characters, no evil nation, just life with its ordinary joys and sorrows.

I hesitated over this review, waiting over a week while I mulled the book over in my mind. I think it is a book that many people will like. It has an emotional appeal to the heartstrings and the prose is good. It just struck me wrong, I felt alienated by it in the end. That was an emotional reaction to what felt like too much. Others will like it for the very reason it turned me off.

I received an e-galley of The Bookshop of the Brokenhearted from the publisher through NetGalley

The Bookshop of the Brokenhearted at Penguin Random House
Robert Hillman author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical fiction set in a small town in Australia in the 1960’s and flashing back to Europe during World War II. Three characters’ stories are told: Tom Hope, a soft-spoken sheep farmer, Hannah Babel, a Jewish woman whose son and husband died at Auschwitz, and Peter Carson, the young son of Tom’s first wife who is taken by his mother to live with a religious cult.

I thought the author conveyed a genuine sense of place and loved the descriptions of sheep farming. I felt an emotional attachment to the nuanced characters. The plot gained momentum as it progressed. The title is a bit misleading, as the story is not set in the bookstore. It plays a role in the plot but is not the central focus. Hannah is attempting to establish a bookstore as a form of restitution for books burned by the Nazis. It also serves as a symbol of shattered lives being rebuilt. I don’t think it is coincidence that one of the main characters is named Tom Hope, as hope for the future is a common thread among the primary stories. Other themes include fear of abandonment, the will to survive, and the healing power of love.

I felt the author was successful in portraying the guilt and psychological impact of the trauma Hannah experienced during the war. Each of the main characters is faced with trauma and all respond differently. I thought the book went a bit off-kilter toward the end and found the scenes of child abuse incredibly disturbing. I felt it was a well-written attempt to convey the human struggle to connect individual consciousness to a deeper meaning in life.

I received an advanced reader’s copy from the publisher via NetGally in return for a candid review.

[Deanne Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our story starts off in 1968 Australia. Tom's wife Trudy leaves him and he's grieving. She returns to him and he takes her back but she's pregnant with another man's baby. Tom loves this child like it's his own and the boy counts on him for his care and love. His mother wants nothing to do with him. When Trudy leaves the second time she stays gone taking her son with her.
Tom is devastated. Tom is an unlucky fella, in love and in losing the boy he considers his own.
Tom meets a woman Hannah who initiates the relationship and Tom falls in love again.
The story turns dark as we find out things about Trudy and Hannah's past come to light. These things really bother her. Love,loss and redemption fill this story.
Different than many stories I've read.
Published April 9th 2019 by G.P. Putnam's Son.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars Thank you to Penguin's First to Read and G.P. Putnam's Sons for a chance to read and review this ARC. Published on April 9, 2019.

My expectation was way off for this book. I was expecting a light romance kindled in a bookstore. So far from the actuality of this novel.

I felt that the book started out well, I really liked the main character Tom and also liked Peter, the son of Tom's wife. I also enjoyed the farm setting. I was still okay with the story when Tom met Hannah and helped her with the book store. But not long after that, I started to struggle. I usually like the alternating chapters that almost all authors have gone to recently. However, in this book, I felt that using that method made the story feel choppy and disconnected.

Other than Tom and Peter I did not like any of the characters in the story. Maybe that was because I expected a light romance and this novel is not that. I wanted and expected a nice light love affair, inspired in a book shop. This novel is definitely not light. And I don't feel that the bookshop played that big a part - at least not as I had imagined it would. Hannah's plight also did not seem to fit into the rest of the story. I felt it was too big of a contrast. Instead of going from warm to cuddly, this story went from warm to razor wire.

I can see where people may like this story, however, for me, it just did not work.

[John Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted will move you in the first few pages. If that isn’t enough, the writing alone is definitely worth the price of admission. And then there is the richness of the storytelling and the depth of emotion thrown in, too. Robert Hillman seems to get more across with fewer words than I would have thought possible. This is wonderful stuff.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure - if I had read the full description of this book and its Auschwitz component, I probably would not have requested it. So while I enjoyed Tom's quiet life with the sheep and the failed relationship story, missing a son-figure who is moved by his mother to Phillip Island, I felt less interested in Hannah's back story and found myself skimming it. I did like her bookshop but it was a bit implausible. I could have used more Australian in this - more unique setting, more language - it felt like it could have been set in any rural farm.

This came out April 2, 2019, and I did have an advanced readers copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom was shy, Trudy wasn't happy.

Trudy left Tom, came back pregnant, left again without her son, Peter, then came back again to take Peter away. Taking Peter away devastated Tom because he grew to love Peter and was the main caregiver even though he wasn't Peter's father.

Tom decided he had to move on with his life since he was only thirty three, and he found Hannah to help with that. Hannah moved a bit too fast for Tom, but it all worked out.

Tom was shy, Hannah was bolder. Tom had tragedy in his life, but nothing like Hannah's. Hannah had been in Auschwitz and had lost her husband and son in the camp.

Hannah was a very interesting character and a perfect match for Tom. They both had their talents, and they both complimented each other and taught each other different things until Hannah's moods became worse.

THE BOOKSHOP OF THE BROKENHEARTED moved along slowly but was an interesting read. We learned about Auzchwitz and the life Hannah lived after she was free, how it all affected Hannah and her moods, and how her intensity about love, Tom, and her life was based on those experiences.

We learned about farm life and how lonely Tom's life was and how Hannah brought new things into his life such as books. We learned how Hannah made Tom happy because she gave him compliments about everything he did and filled his lonely days even though Hannah had her dark days that made Tom's days difficult.

I enjoyed the eccentric characters and the different story lines going on at once even though a few of the story lines were a bit intense. The characters had some quirky, and at times dangerous habits, but the characters were easy to like except for a few.

The author's writing style was fluid, easy, and pulled me in. I do have to say the book was a bit odd at times and difficult to follow.

THE BOOKSHOP OF THE BROKENHEARTED had many feelings going on...heartbreak, tragedy, loving someone even when they weren't lovable, and being hopeful for happiness in it all.

ENJOY if you read this book. 4/5

This book was given to me as an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Ariannha · Rating 2 out of 5]

"La vida no me importa. Los libros son mucho mejor"

Lamentablemente este libro no fue para mí... a pesar de querer haberlo dejado muchas veces le di la oportunidad hasta el final... pero no, definitivamente no era.

Empecemos por el título, el cual te hace referencia a que esta librería será parte importante de la trama o argumento, sin embargo tiene un pequeño espacio en la historia. También hay algunas referencias a libros clásicos y se percibe el amor de la protagonista hacia ellos en sus conversaciones, pero la librería sigue apenas tiene protagonismo. ¿Lo usó el autor para enganchar a todos los que somos bibliófilos? Realmente no lo se, pero esperaba más.

Con los personajes me pasó otro tanto, a pesar de que considero que están perfectamente dibujados, me ha sido imposible conectar con ninguno: Tom por ser tan simple, paciente y pasivo, Trudy por ir y venir a su antojo y sin que le importa nada, y al final tampoco se importa a sí misma, y ni siquiera he podido con Hannah, a la que a pesar de querer entender lo que había vivido, nunca fue “cercana al lector”. Lamentablemente, no sentí empatía, con los principales, solo con Peter, un niño que sufre y por momentos parece que no le interesa a nadie.

“La librería de los corazones solitarios” se lee con bastante facilidad, está bien ambientada en la parte rural de Australia en los años sesenta, y está contada en tercera persona por un narrador omnisciente de forma pausada, quizás en algunos casos demasiado lenta para mi gusto, produciendo la sensación de que no pasaba nada; y es que, todo pasa en las últimas 100 páginas.
Hay muchas tramas y subtramas entre los personajes, pero ninguna lo suficientemente profunda, pensé que la encontraría en Hannah y su pasado tormentoso en Auschwitz o en la pérdida de su familia, pero no, todo queda visto desde la superficie, todo sucede deprisa y de manera entrecortada.

Como en todo en la vida, hay de todo para todos, y lo que gusta a unos no sirve para otros. Y esto es lo que me sucedió con este libro, mi intención no es dar una crítica negativa, sino simplemente exponer los puntos que conmigo no funcionaron. Me quedo solamente con la citas que me han gustado y que he colocado en este review.

“Todo libro tiene siempre alguien que lo ame.”

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as you put “bookshop” in the title of your novel, you’re going to attract readers. Add to that the other reader siren calls: a setting seen through new eyes, a young child you want to root for, a romance, an uplifting message, a romance, and even the gates of Auschwitz.

Robert Hillman has pressed all the buttons and normally, that would make me wary. But despite myself, I fell under the spell of this book. It’s set in the late 1960s in rural Australia, where two lonely people meet. One is Tom Hope (a symbolic name if there ever was one), who is broken-hearted after his unfaithful wife absconds with the boy he’s come to feel for as his own son. The other is a Holocaust survivor, Hannah, who is many years older than him, a little mad, yet impassioned about life.

Tom and Hannah are an unlikely pair and there might be questions about the strong attraction. I took it on faith: both are broken people living in a sparsely populated area and have suffered loss. Under Robert Hillman’s crafting, Hannah comes uniquely and vitally alive – the dialog, the fears, the passions all feel true to life. And so does Tom.

In the “what if I were the writer” department, there are a couple of things I might have done differently; for instance, Hannah’s back story might have ended at a pivotal place a bit earlier. But all in all, this is a page-turning book with a strong and hopeful message: when we let love into our lives it can do wonders and heal our broken hearts.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't care for books that make me feel bad about myself and that's what this book did. I felt bad because I didn't like Hannah, one of the main characters in the book. I know I was supposed to because she was a survivor of Auschwitz and unspeakable tragedies but I didn't. Does being a survivor mean that everything has to go the way you want without the consideration of other people for the rest of your life? That's what Hannah thinks.

After her release in WWII and a brief marriage to a weird second husband, Hannah moves to Australia to open a book store. With no regard what rural Australia might want to read, she stocks it with Russian classics and then rails against the town because they don't rush to buy them. She hires Tom, a handyman and nice guy, to build shelves. He has read exactly one book in his life and she gives him Crime and Punishment as his second. Really? Tom has a sad past with a truly screwy wife who runs off with the young boy they have been raising to a "Jesus Camp".

The boy suffers there and wants to come back to Tom. Hannah, now Tom's wife, refuses to take him back. How the situation resolves will break your heart. This would have been a better book if I liked Hannah better but it will pull your heartstrings.

Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[Lisa Leone-campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Tom Hope wanted was to tend to his sheep farm in Australia and please his wife. Unfortunately his wife could not be pleased. She leaves, and Tom being the patient, caring and understanding man, waits for her return. Which she does. Only to leave him again for good which breaks his heart.

Then a mysterious woman named Hannah comes to town via Hungary. She is the total opposite of Tom's ex-wife. She is spontaneous, affectionate, smart and motivated. She decides she wants to open a bookstore in the rural town and asks Tom to build some shelving.

But Hannah has had her own heart broken. A survivor of the Holocaust, she has witnessed loss and hate. These two polar opposites begin to fall in love. Tom who is not book savvy at all begins to read books Hannah suggests to him. And thus begins a relationship of survival. And just like it seems highly unlikely a bookshop could ever succeed in this small town, is it possible they ever will?

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?

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

Thank you #NetGalley #G.P.Putnam'sSon's #TheBookshopoftheBrokenHearted #RobertHillman for the advanced copy.