Broken - by Daniel Clay (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Until that fateful afternoon, Skunk Cunningham had been a normal little girl, playing on the curb in front of her house. Rick Buck-ley had been a normal geeky teen-ager, hosing off his brand-new car. Bob Oswald had been a normal sociopathic single father of five slutty daughters, charging furiously down the side-walk. 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 sub-urban community after a single act of thoughtless cruelty.

Review Quotes

"This intense and intricate novel charts the fascinating, often frightening lives of three families in suburban Britain. Daniel Clay shows a masterful empathy for his characters, while never shying from their frailties and agonies. BROKEN is surprising, shocking, and cruelly funny at times. It's an unforgettable book." -- Scott Heim, author of MYSTERIOUS SKIN and WE DISAPPEAR

"Clay's debut novel is remarkably controlled and disciplined as it depicts those who spiral out of control.... Clay succeeds in inciting pity even for a murderer [and his] triumph is in exploring the kindness and love that might heal and restore - and what it is to feel fully alive." -- The Independent

"Daniel Clay tells the truth about childhood in the modern world, and captures all the elements of a great novel: suspense, desperation, love, and death." -- Amy Bryant, author of POLLY

"Bold, prescient, engaging." -- The Guardian

"It's funny and sad and moving." -- The Observer