Beloved by booksellers and readers alike, this compelling and heartbreaking tale of grief and memory set in a small Victorian town in the 1960s is now available in a smaller, competitively priced format.
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*
‘Robert Hillman entwines, with risk and skill, different and
seemingly incompatible stories…He adds heft to the distinguished
fiction of rural Australia.’
*Australian*
‘The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is a stunningly beautiful work,
a fully imagined world with a rare combination of compelling,
vibrant, and tender characters who inhabit the story with
courage...The compassion and grace that suffuse this novel are
rarely captured in such beautiful language. As Tom and Hannah
discover the courage to continue living, we are both torn apart and
mended in the same breath. All that can be imagined of the heart
comes to life in this extraordinary story.’
*author of The Bookshop at Water’s End*
‘A beautifully woven tale of love and loss that shines a light on
one of human’s most remarkable gifts: our capacity for hope.
Hillman is a storyteller of such spell-binding skill that readers
will desire nothing more than to curl up in a quiet corner and
devour this wise, warm, and transporting novel in one sitting.’
*author of Dog Crazy*
‘I couldn't put this book down. An unforgiving Australian landscape
backdrops characters so finely drawn you can smell their sweat,
searching for many forms of redemption. With skill and grace,
Hillman explores the heights and depths to which humans will go
while trying to mend their own or another's broken heart. Poignant
humour, sweet spots, and fear all roll into a timely period piece
that draws you in. Prepare to lose a day.’
*Wendy Welch, author The Little Bookstore of Big Stone
Gap*
‘The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is a beautifully written,
nuanced tale of three lost souls who find in one another the
comfort and solace they each need. I loved this disarmingly
affecting novel, which is full of insight into the human condition
and the nature of tragedy and love and redemption. Read it and
let it touch your soul as it has touched mine.’
*The Art of Racing in the Rain*
‘I can't remember the last time I read a book this full and rich
and rewarding. I can't remember the last time a book held up so
well, from first page to last. Try it yourself. Sit down with it
and read the first few pages. Then buy it. This one's a
keeper.’
*author of The Story of Arthur Truluv*
‘I found that the novel beautifully represents Hillman’s inherent
understanding of Australia and its people. This is a novel of
desolation, and it is ultimately a love story. Frankly for me it
doesn’t get better.’
*Readings Monthly*
‘This is a story with love and laughter, guilt and grief, cruelty
and kindness. All this is wrapped in beautiful descriptive prose… A
wonderful and moving read.’
*BookMooch*
‘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*
‘Hillman’s ability to conjure up the rhythms and texture of rural
life is a source of joy…This is a novel about the importance of
freedom as well as the redemptive qualities of love – and how
facing up to the past can be the key to both freedom and
love.’
*Saturday Paper*
‘There is a tender, limpid flow to Hillman’s beautifully-paced
prose that makes it a joy to read as it gently privileges seasons,
weather, steadfastness and love, and the farm’s expansive outlook
across the countryside over inevitable episodes of violence, loss
and pain.’
*Adelaide Advertiser*
‘The writer conveys depth of character, emotion, time and place
with skilfully succinct prose.’
*NZ Women’s Weekly*
‘The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is a celebration of the
re-creation of families after heartbreak, and in particular the
love between father and son. Highly recommended.’
*New Zealand Herald*
‘The writer conveys depth of character, emotion, time and place
with skilfully succinct prose.’
*NZ Women’s Weekly*
‘Hillman’s vivid poetic imagery blends with the realistic
descriptions of the horrors of war and its futility…Even though
there is much heartache and sadness, this story was a pleasure to
read with its inspiring philosophy and compelling characters.’
*Good Reading*
‘It is not often that a novel is both a great read and a sobering
chronicle about the painful possibilities of human behaviour…Robert
Hillman’s The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted is such
a one.’
*Sydney Morning Herald*
‘Hillman provides a skillful portrait of the Australian landscape
and those who live in it, including the psychic postie and flirty
butcher. It’s a simple story, well told.’
*North & South*
‘A beautifully written and haunting story of love, loss, and
redemption. With his vividly drawn cast of characters in rural
Australia in the late 1960s, Hillman explores what it truly means
to love another person, and what we’re capable of doing to protect
the ones we love at all costs. A gorgeous, heartfelt gem of a
novel.’
*author of The Lost Letter*
‘A beautifully written, tenderhearted story. This is the kind of
book that remains present even while you’re doing something mundane
– like washing dishes. It lingered in my mind long after I’d
finished the last page.’
*Sharon Peterson, Readings St Kilda*
‘In The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted, Robert Hillman reminds us
how the reverberations of war can reach people in the unlikeliest
of places. With deftly crafted characters, one tender and
compassionate, the other spirited and determined, he guides us on a
poignant journey of unthinkable loss, love, and the healing
capacity of the written word.’
*Ellen Keith, bestselling author of The Dutch Wife*
‘Hillman’s novel is an impressive, riveting tale of how two
disparate and well-drawn people recover from soul-wrenching grief
and allow themselves to truly love again.’
*Publishers Weekly*
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