"The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted" by Robert Hillman is a poignant and beautifully written novel that explores themes of love, loss, and redemption against the backdrop of a small Australian town. With richly drawn characters and lyrical prose, Hillman crafts a story that lingers in the heart long after the final page. It's a moving tale that celebrates the power of books to heal and connect us, making it a must-read for anyone who appreciates the transformative magic of literature.

Obviously, with this title, I knew that this book was not going to be an uplifting one. A bookshop designated for broken-hearted people isn't exactly a fun topic. Additionally, the two main characters have experienced a great deal of heartache: Tom's wife left him and Hannah experienced the horrors of Auschwitz. But even when the characters in the story found love or peace, there was very little warmth in this book. As much empathy as I felt for all of the characters, I didn't find myself connected to their struggles. It felt like there was this huge space between the characters and myself as the reader. There were also several examples of child and animal abuse (it takes place on a farm, so maybe the latter was to be expected), but there was something that just left a bad taste in my mouth the whole time. This is definitely not one I would find myself recommending in the future.

It is both ironic and fitting that a book called The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted should have at its heart an everyman protagonist with the tender name of Tom Hope.

Tom, a socially awkward man, is a character that endears himself to us from the very start. When his wife of 22 months, Trudy, leaves him, he is heartbroken. Then one day, months later, she returns pregnant, and Tom learns to love the child, Peter, who receives no affection from his mother. Then Trudy leaves again, leaving Peter behind, and Tom and Peter are happy together. Tom cherishes the little boy as his own, and the little one, in turn, nurtures towards Tom a fierce loyalty.

Their happiness is short-lived, for Trudy, having found God in a cult, returns to claim him. Three-year-old Peter, forcefully taken away by Trudy, cleaves Tom’s heart apart more grievously than before. He learns to hide his sorrow and his acute loneliness by keeping busy. Just he, his dog, Beau, and the sheep. "Working hard, his face was a terrain of wood dust traversed by shallow valleys carved by sweat."

And then one day, he espies a new shop with a sign in Hebrew, saying, To the God of the Hopeless, bless this shop. It is the Bookshop of the Broken Hearted.

Tom falls in love with Hannah, the owner of the shop, a woman full of life and colour who believes that "For every book, someone loves it."

The flashback takes us to May 1944, when Hannah Babel, husband Leon and son, 3-year-old Michael, are being transported to an unknown destination in a wagon overcrowded with Jews. It is Auschwitz where some of the worst excesses of the Holocaust were wreaked. There Hannah loses both her husband and son and suffers unbearable heartbreak.



At first, the two stories of Tom and Hannah seem parallel, with seemingly no connection, but they do find their way to one another.

With Tom being what he is, we find ourselves feeling aggrieved, on his behalf, against Trudy, the wife who won’t stay faithful to a man who treats her well, preferring to go away with an abusive man.



The book is set in Australia. I enjoyed the descriptions of life on the farm, the work of milking and herding, Tom’s work as a farmer and handyman, and the descriptions of how the farm gets lashed by the elements. So also the descriptions of the carpentry, and the welding and fitting. Together they brought home to us the character of a man who was patient, hardworking and not afraid of labour, a man who was simple and deserving of so much more than life had doled out to him.

Bit by bit, Tom lets the little child, Peter, heal his heart. He is afraid to enjoy the happiness that has come to him in the shape of his child, fearing that the boy may be taken away from him. As the author says, "The hammer blow that is expected, braced for, does no less harm than the ones that come from nowhere."

The writing in this book was beautiful. "We can’t always discern happiness, strong happiness, without the evidence of laughter, whooping, the dancing of a jig. It’s possible to experience the most intense happiness of your life behind a grave, withholding expression. As an adult, at least. Not usually at the age of eight."

Hannah with her quiet wisdom is a character that will stay with the reader. She is afraid that the bookshop will bankrupt her or that Tom will stop loving her one day.

I just love unconventional love stories, and this one with Hannah being 12 years older than Tom was exactly that.

The spirit of hope pervaded the book. The Hungarian Jewish women were learning Yiddish in the dark from Lithuanian Jewish women even though they could well be dead in the morning. The hopelessness of Auschwitz against the Jews who preserved their own learning philosophy.

Robert Hillman is one author to watch out for.

I love the bright colors and shelves of this cover. This book really hits home that the 1960's were only 20 years after Auschwitz and WWII. A story about a farmer named Tom, whose first wife left him for a Jesus camp. He meets and falls in love with Hannah, who is going through the horror of Auschwitz where she was held during the war. The cover doesn't quite fit with the story line.

Tom Hope doesn't chase rainbows. He does his best on the farm - he milks the cows, harvests the apples, looks after the sheep - but Tom's been lonely since his wife Trudy left, taking little Peter with her to go join the holy rollers.

Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic smalltown bookseller: the second Jew - and the most vivid person - Tom has ever met. When she asks him to move in, and help her build Australia's most beautiful bookshop, Tom 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 battle with heartbreak he can barely even begin to imagine.

Love this book, very well written.

The Bookshop of the Borken Hearted grabs you from the beginning. The characters are well-crafted and the scenery is quite believable. Makes you want to visit the bookstore.

Great novel.

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.

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.

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.