Ballad of the Broken is a cinematic second-chance love story set in modern Belfast - where music, memory, and forgiveness collide.

Once, Doireann Kearney and George Doyle were the heartbeat of a band that almost changed a city. But the night the deal fell apart, they did too. Decades later, George walks the docks with a guitar case and too many regrets, while Doireann raises twin daughters in the shadow of a song she can't bear to sing again.

When an old friend draws them back to the Kearney house - the same kitchen, the same ghosts - Belfast hums around them: cranes above the river, markets under string lights, rain glinting on the cobbles. In a city still learning to forgive itself, two people who once burned it down must decide whether to rebuild or finally let go.

Through sharp dialogue, quiet grace, and tender humour, Laura Carpenter turns the aftershocks of the Troubles into a story about the small repairs that make a life: the kettle always on, the bench left waiting, the love that survives even when everything else breaks.

Themes: forgiveness, found family, motherhood, legacy, healing through art, and the music that binds generations. Tone: cinematic, lyrical, emotionally rich - as intimate as a folk song and as defiant as a rock ballad.

For readers of Sally Rooney, Douglas Stuart, and Jojo Moyes, Ballad of the Broken is a story about the courage to sing again after silence - and the city that keeps time with every note