In 1931, Gregory Hemingway’s life begins in Kansas City, Missouri. The third and favourite son of an overbearing father, Greg is a paragon: a star athlete, a crack shot, bright and handsome and built like a pocket battleship.

In 2001, Gloria Hemingway’s life ends in a Miami women’s correctional institution. Despite heartbreak and disapproval, and defying all odds, this life has been a miracle.

Inspired by true events and spanning seventy years of the last century, this is the story of an extraordinary figure. Transporting the reader back and forth in time, from Cuba to New York and Montana to Florida, The Broken Places explores what it means to grow up in the shadow of a man famous for his masculinity, to bear the weight of expectation and a tragic family legacy, and to finally step out into the light.

Russell Franklin was born in Solihull, and now lives and works in London. He was selected for the prestigious London Library Emerging Writers Programme 2020-2021. This is his first novel.