October 2025

I loved Clare Leslie Hall’s BROKEN COUNTRY, so I was eager to read her two earlier books, both of which had not been published in the States until late August and late September. I wrote about DAYS YOU WERE MINE, her second book, earlier this month. Now I turn my attention to PICTURES OF HIM, her debut novel.

As it opens, Catherine is mute. Something happened that has rendered her speechless, and readers are set on a journey to her life 15 years ago, four months before, and now. It is told only in the voices of Catherine and Lucian.

At the start, Catherine is at university coming from a place of modest means. There she meets Lucian, whose world is a lot more posh than hers. His friends are a tight circuit of other sophisticates who carry shared memories of parties and outings through prep school and now at university. They know each other’s backstories, their jokes, and how to navigate one another. Enter Catherine for whom Lucian has fallen hard, and she for him. She is not part of the tribe that he grew up with, but he loves her in spite of this --- or perhaps because of this. 

One night 15 years ago, Catherine left Lucian abruptly after months of being together, leaving him bewildered about why something like this would happen. His world shatters a lot. His friends see this and blame Catherine for it all. She remains cold and avoids him. That said, she still tracks his comings and goings in the society pages and has saved a box of his letters and pictures that she hides in the back of a closet. Her husband, Sam, is aware that she had “a thing” with Lucian and teases her about following his life in the papers whenever he catches her. Her friend, Liv, keeps her up on him as well. 

Catherine is married and happy with two children when she receives some news that makes her want to put her life with her family on pause. She races away. She heads to Lucian, who is poised to throw his big party. He is still with the old crowd, and they are wary of her after she hurt him once, with no idea of what happened between them. He remains just as mystified. 

The chapters then take us back to four months before, once again from the viewpoints of Catherine and Lucian. We see their reunion, how she is grappling with her earlier choice, and what that may have meant. Lucian is a painter who has painted Catherine in the past and loves painting her again at this later time in her life. 

In this book, you see the emotional chops that Clare is honing to later write BROKEN COUNTRY, which is more ambitious. I think it would be interesting for a book group to read all three of her books to see her development as a writer and with storytelling. I look forward to seeing what she does next!