The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

Tom Hope is a practically minded sheep farmer in 1960s Australia - we find him at the start of the novel having been left by his wife - for the second time - leaving behind the son she had as a result of her infidelity the first time she left. Tom and the boy, Peter, form a bond, only for Trudy to appear two years later to take him back to the Christian commune she has become a part of.

Then Tom meets Hannah Babel, a twice-widowed Auschwitz survivor many years his senior, who has come to town with the dream of opening a bookshop. Hannah hires Tom to do the renovations to her shop and a relationship forms between them; the townsfolk, aware of Tom's history, are wary.

Although Hannah has survived the Holocaust, the memories of those she lost, including her son, Michael, haunt her. So when Peter runs way from Jesus Camp where the pastor is a controlling patriarch who believes in thrashing the spirit of God into misbehaving children, returning 'home' to the farm to be with Tom, Hannah's past reasserts itself. Tom would gladly fight to keep Peter, but both the law and Hannah are against him. Peter isn't Tom's biological son and Hannah can't bear the idea of loving the boy, only to lose another child. Can Tom find a way to bring Peter home? This is a moving and compelling story which reminds us of just how much love can endure in the face of evil.

Submitted by Mary-Ellen