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Broken: A Novel
Until that fateful afternoon, Skunk Cunningham had been a normal little girl, playing on the curb in front of her house. Rick Buckley had been a normal geeky teenager, hosing off his brand-new car. Bob Oswald had been a normal sociopathic single father of five slutty daughters, charging furiously down the sidewalk. Then Bob was beating Rick to a bloody pulp, right there in the Buckleys' driveway, and life on Drummond Square was never the same again. Inspired by Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird , Clay's brilliantly observed and darkly funny novel follows the sudden unraveling of a suburban community after a single act of thoughtless cruelty.
305 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2008
About the author
Daniel Clay
4 books46 followersDaniel Clay is thirty-seven years old and married with no children. He lives in Hedge End, on the south coast of England.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 1, 2026
Don't judge a book by its cover, especially this one. I understand that the illustration on the cover is from an old children's book. However, this is not some sweet story of children. There are children in the story, and right off the bat, you know what happens does not bode well for a little 11-year-old girl. This part is written in italics, so you know it is from her inner thoughts. Periodically, that shows up again throughout the book.
The story takes place in a housing development of fairly well-to-do families with one notable exception. The book centers around three families: the Buckley's (he's a mortician), the Cunninghams (he's a lawyer and single parent), and the Oswalds (he's widowed and on the dole with his five daughters).
Bob Oswald loves his daughters, but he is a violent man with many bad qualities that his daughters have learned well from. Their mother died in childbirth, and they have only Bob and the money from the social services and whatever they can make on the side, like selling drugs, sex, and protection. Bob believes every lie that comes out of their mouths, and they can instantly come up with whatever lie will save them from his wrath. Other people, those they accuse, are not so lucky.
Since you know that Skunk Cunningham has somehow been injured enough that she is unconscious, the tension builds throughout the story, and leads up to what happened to her in the full backstory that unfolds.
This is a story of cause and effect and consequences. It is not an easy book to read but hard to put down. It can make you angry and sad
The story takes place in a housing development of fairly well-to-do families with one notable exception. The book centers around three families: the Buckley's (he's a mortician), the Cunninghams (he's a lawyer and single parent), and the Oswalds (he's widowed and on the dole with his five daughters).
Bob Oswald loves his daughters, but he is a violent man with many bad qualities that his daughters have learned well from. Their mother died in childbirth, and they have only Bob and the money from the social services and whatever they can make on the side, like selling drugs, sex, and protection. Bob believes every lie that comes out of their mouths, and they can instantly come up with whatever lie will save them from his wrath. Other people, those they accuse, are not so lucky.
Since you know that Skunk Cunningham has somehow been injured enough that she is unconscious, the tension builds throughout the story, and leads up to what happened to her in the full backstory that unfolds.
This is a story of cause and effect and consequences. It is not an easy book to read but hard to put down. It can make you angry and sad
Displaying 1 of 1 review