Play Book Tag discussion

Note: This would fit "international" tag ... but I read it last month



The Bookshop Of the Broken Hearted – Robert Hillman
3.5***

In 1968 in rural Australia, Tom Hope runs his farm, milks his cows, tends his sheep and tries to find a new purpose in his life after his wife, Trudy, left him and took her son, Peter, with her. Then he meets Hannah Babel, a survivor of Auschwitz and some 15 years his senior, who hires him to build bookcases for her new bookshop.

Hannah seems to have recovered from her ordeal during WW2, but she is far from having healed. Her fierce determination and passion for her work hide a deep wound that she refuses to reveal or discuss. Tom is the quintessential good guy. He took Trudy back after she left the first time, and did not condemn or even question her for returning pregnant. And when she left a second time to join a religious community, he raised Peter as his own. He is truly heart-broken when several years later, Trudy demands that the boy come live with her and sever all ties with Tom.

In a way these Tom and Hannah have both lost a child and should be able to understand and comfort one another. But it isn’t quite so easy as that.

I really liked how Hillman drew these broken-hearted people, how he revealed their pain and their efforts to heal and move forward. Yet, I wasn’t sure I understood Hannah all that well. Her story is compelling, but I felt I didn’t fully get to know her. Trudy is even more of an enigma. I never knew why she did anything … from marrying Tom to leaving him the first time to her final desperate act.

Tom’s stoicism and approach to his life (just continuing to move forward despite what happens) are admirable, but make him a bit stand-offish. And yet, the way he treats the boy lets me see the goodness of his heart. I loved Peter … what a great kid! Intelligent and observant, determined and brave. My heart ached for him as he endured.

All told, it was a good story and kept my attention. But I think Hillman might have been trying to include too much.



LINK to my review