It’s one of those novels everyone will be talking about.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is set to become a major motion picture and is billed as the most addictive love story of the year.

It certainly caught the attention of actor Reese Witherspoon, who chose the novel for her book club read.

The film rights of the novel have been bought by Sony’s 3000 Pictures who will collaborate with Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, who together brought Where the Crawdads Sing to the big screen.

Set in the 1950s and 1960s, Broken Country is influenced by Ian McEwan’s Atonement and L P Hartley’s The Go-Between and straddles multiple genres: thriller, romance and courtroom drama.

Clare Leslie Hall is a journalist and novelist with a background in national newspapers. She published two domestic noir novels, Him and Mine, before turning to book club fiction with her third novel Broken Country.

Clare is married with three children and lives in Dorset in an old farmhouse surrounded by fields, which inspired the setting for her novel.

Of her inspiration for the novel, Clare says: “A moment of horror was the spark for Broken Country, a novel which is primarily about love.

“My husband had been running in the fields behind our house with my son Felix’s beloved puppy. When the dog strayed into a field of sheep, the farmer threatened to shoot him.

“We were horrified to think a farmer might shoot the puppy, but within minutes of talking about it a vivid scene came into my head. I pictured a farmer and his wife amidst their field of sheep and a young boy chasing after his lost dog. I knew the boy reminded the couple of their dead son and I could also feel a strong connection between the farmer’s wife and the boy’s father. A love triangle was waiting to be born.”

Clare is in conversation with Lucy Brazier, author of The Honesty Box, on Tuesday 4 November in the Bull Ballroom at 2pm.

For tickets, contact Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901.