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.
I was completely caught up by it and found it intensely moving. The composite method of shuttling between times and places allows a depth of character to build in a way that feels almost cubist. I admire the way in which each character is seen in their variousness and inconsistency so that there is compassion for all. The central character is imagined so fully that their fractured memories now feel like my own and I left the book sad to be leaving a person I had grown to care about greatly * Elizabeth Cook * A humane and compassionate look at a fascinating life, the complexity of gender, and the destructive legacy of being the child of the world's most famous alpha male * Patrick Ness * Sunlit and dark, painful and joyous, The Broken Places follows Ernest Hemingway's child on a lifelong journey. Russell Franklin has crafted a myth-busting novel of rare skill and integrity. Its echoes persist and evolve long after the final pages' * David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas *