Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted
The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted | Robert Hillman
Tom Hope doesnt think hes much of a farmer, but hes doing his best. He cant have been much of a husband to Trudy, either, judging by her sudden departure. Its 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, Toms heart breaks all over again. Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic smalltown bookseller: the second Jewand the most vivid personTom 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. Robert Hillman has written a number of books including his 2004 memoir The Boy in the Green Suit, which won the National Biography Award, and Joyful, published by Text in 2014. He lives in Melbourne. 'A novel of great spirit and tenderness.' Carrie Tiffany While this tale contains darkness and heartache, they are accompanied by truth and love, and ultimately, hope, and the human capacity to overcome...A sensitive, enthralling story, destined to become a favourite. Books+Publishing Hillmans prose is a pleasure to read, elegantly alert to the paradox of strong feeling [and] full of poetry. Australian on Joyful Counting against all [the] business is Hillmans gift for compelling characters, the elegance of his prose and his genius with inventive, surprising dialogue.' Saturday Paper, on Joyful
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
rebbyj
Mehso-so

Meh

review
marleed
post image
Pickpick

This is a beautiful slow going found family story where a woman suffering the grief of all she lost 20 years prior in Auschwitz finds herself in love with a simple good man. Tom was abandoned by his first wife and he grieves for the child he raised as his own. There‘s a lot of background to this story and as a reader I just hoped for Tom, Hannah, and Peter to unite as family.

May BookSpin #DoubleSpin

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
70 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
megnews
post image
Pickpick

This poor book has not had much success with reviews here. Some DNFs. I think people feel the book is all over the place because it does feel like that to a degree. I must admit that most fiction I read is by women. Seeing the love life of a quiet, stoic man through two rocky relationships is a perspective not often read. It was difficult to appreciate at first but Tom grew on me as his story unfolded.

52 likes1 stack add
quote
megnews
post image

review
Bookish_Gal
post image
Bailedbailed

I can‘t get through it. Made it to half, but it‘s too much. Found myself scanning. Hannah, bless her, is a survivor of Authwtiz who is described as crazy for opening a bookstore. Her story would‘ve been nice fleshed out more. Book is described as a bookshop that brings broken people together. Which it doesn‘t well. Their “love” is unrealistic, fall in love at first sight after little/no chemistry. I feel this is poorly written with lost potential

blurb
Bookish_Gal
post image

Say what now? having trouble reading this book. The first impressions of Hannah coming to this rural Australian town, as a Jew after Authwitz, are so stereotypically off. Took 40 pages of Toms grief from his wife‘s drama and leaving home before Hannah comes into the picture. They have the same grief of their child being taken away. Having trouble keeping not just scanning ahead at this point. He‘s becoming obsessed with her

blurb
kspenmoll
post image

#booked2021 #winter #setinAustralia #bakedgoodsoncover
Hail to the chef is a #cozy.The White House top Chef becomes embroiled in crime solving.relationship with First Lady explored, FBI love interest, workings of White House & of course, politics. Fun read.
Bookshop of B H-totally stumped at reviewing this book. Beautifully written-language, settings, descriptions, characters with depth, the vulnerability of love, loss, forgiveness, redemption.

Crazeedi Sound like a god book and one that tugs the heart! 4y
mhillis Hail to the Chef sounds good! 4y
Cinfhen Lots of baked goods 😍Those cozies don‘t disappoint 4y
53 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
kspenmoll
post image
Chrissyreadit 😍😍😍 4y
Teresereading I loved the Bookshop 4y
48 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
kspenmoll
post image

#jolabokaflodswap #ChristmasEve

Thank you @LouBeth for this book and the Christmas bag chock full of chocolate! I am reading & munching during ads while watching “It‘s a Wonderful Life”. Perfect!

LeahBergen How fun! 😍 4y
Cathythoughts So lovely 💕 4y
70 likes2 comments
review
Joanne1
post image
Pickpick

Beautiful, melancholy, but ultimately hopeful. The story of farmer, Tom, and Holocaust survivor, Hannah, will live in my heart for a long time.

41 likes2 stack adds
review
Jeg
post image
Pickpick

Delightful. Loved all the characters. Great writing . Great descriptions of the Aussie landscape . Best ending. I laughed and shed a few tears too reading this book. Off to return to library. Trying not to borrow . We shall see.
@MrsMalaprop
#2020joybooks

Joanne1 Just finished this one today, so delightful! And yes the ending was perfect. 4y
16 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
thea-block
post image
Pickpick

This book was different than expected but so welcome! A meandering story of heartache, redemption, and the family you create. The Australian landscape and lifestyle are characters themselves, as are the sense of loss and glimpses of hope.

Pick this one up if you have a chance!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(A few unexpectedly weird plot points featured, which I‘ve found in many Australian things I‘ve watched/read... anyone else found that to be the case?)

7 likes1 stack add
review
Gingermint2000
Mehso-so

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.

review
TheBookgeekFrau
post image
Mehso-so

Not really sure how I feel about this book. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. It kept my interest even though it didn't really go any where. 🤷‍♀️ it's just a read that was a read

35 likes1 stack add
blurb
TheBookgeekFrau
post image

And now on to Sunday morning plans 😊

review
perfectsinner
Panpan

It wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. Wanted more about Tom & Peter.

StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Welcome to Litsy 💖📖💖 6y
perfectsinner Thanks! Still learning my way around 6y
rretzler Welcome to Litsy!📖 6y
See All 6 Comments
perfectsinner Thanks! 6y
JohannaRose Welcome to Litsy! I hope you love it here! 😊 6y
3 likes6 comments
review
Jenken1998
post image
Mehso-so

It had promise but was so disjointed with incomplete characters i found myself skimming the second half. I liked the dual timelines and general plot but it felt rushed. Hannah opens a book shop in 1968 rural Australia where she meets and marries Tom. His past heartbreaks and her horrific past as a prisoner at Auschwitz make them have to work extra hard to make a life together. Good story. I just felt it needed some fleshing out.

blurb
Jenken1998
post image

The struggle is real. Not hating but not really loving it either. I'm at the half way point. I will push/skim through just because i like 1 storyline more than the other. 🤷‍♀️

Crazeedi I was on the fence with this one, though I did finish it 6y
kyraleseberg I finished this one but did *a lot* of skimming. 6y
36 likes2 comments
review
TheHeartlandBookFairy
post image
Panpan

I usually enjoy books about books or bookshops! This book was less about a bookshop then I would have liked but definitely about the broken hearted. I liked this cover version much better than the actual cover version. It was a very slow going read and it only barely it to 3 stars with the ending of the book. It didn't do a good job of weaving back and forth from past to present and felt very disjointed. I just did not enjoy this story at all ☹️

blurb
Follow.my.read
post image

New arrival❤️

67 likes2 stack adds
review
SilversReviews
post image
Pickpick

HAPPY PUB DAY!!

FULL REVIEW: https://bit.ly/2UPGzi5

THE BOOKSHOP OF THE BROKENHEARTED moved along slowly but was an interesting read. .

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. 4/5

tammysue Nice review! 👍🏻 6y
63 likes2 comments
blurb
SilversReviews
post image

FULL REVIEW ON 4/9.

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.

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. 4/5

60 likes1 stack add
review
robinb
post image
Pickpick

Oh, finished this one in a day...definitely not the norm for me! Set in rural Australia in the late 60s, this book is filled with flawed, deeply human and ultimately triumphant characters...a story told in two time periods/locations (Hannah is an Auschwitz survivor), it covers a range of emotions...despair, guilt, unimaginable loss, tenacious faith and finally the healing power of redemption and love. 4.5/5⭐️

Thanks to #NetGalley & #GPPutnamsSons

65 likes4 stack adds
blurb
robinb
post image

Currently halfway through this one...and yes, it‘s already broken my 🧡 at least twice. 😔😢💔💔

#NetGalley
#GPPutnamsSons

Out 4/9

#coverlove

66 likes3 stack adds
blurb
Lisas.Library
post image

ARC
A gorgeously written, tender, and wise novel about love and forgiveness in 1960s Australia, in which a lonely farmer finds his life turned upside down by the arrival of a vibrant librarian.
Release date 4•9•2019

88 likes6 stack adds
blurb
Rhondareads
post image

Won‘t be trick or treating will be reading💕📚😍👻

blurb
JennyM
post image

This book has a gentle loveliness, I don‘t want it to end. Alternating between rural Australia in the late 60‘s and Auschwitz 25 years earlier, its a story of love and heartbreak, and a bookshop.

48 likes1 stack add