Ballad of the Broken: A Novel of Found Family, Fierce Hope, and Songs That Refuse to Die

Ballad of the Broken
A Novel of Found Family, Fierce Hope, and Songs That Refuse to Die
By Laura Carpenter

They came from nowhere. A bus stop. A fire escape. A back-alley open mic and a final voicemail never returned. Strangers, misfits, dreamers—each of them battered by their own private heartbreak, drawn together by a city that chews up talent and forgets your name the second the lights go out. But one night, in a run-down bar on the edge of downtown, a song breaks open the silence—and nothing will ever be the same again.

This is the story of a girl who lost everything. Of a boy who ran. Of a woman who forgot how to sing and a man who never stopped listening. It’s the story of what happens when the world says, “You’re too late,” and someone else says, “But sing it anyway.”

Set against a raw, lyrical backdrop of music, memory, and reinvention, Ballad of the Broken is a deeply emotional novel about the families we make when the ones we were born into leave us behind. When Delilah Chase steps off a midnight Greyhound with nothing but a battered guitar and a locked box of grief, she isn’t looking for anything except a place to disappear. But fate—or maybe just an old blues singer with sharp eyes and too many ghosts—has other plans.

Because inside a crumbling theatre marked for demolition, a group of strangers is learning to rebuild the lives they never thought they could claim again. Each of them is holding onto a secret. Each of them is afraid to love. And all of them are bound by one thing: the songs they refuse to stop singing.

Told in four intertwined voices, this novel journeys through forgotten streets, lost homes, and unexpected harmonies. From basement rehearsals to borrowed stages, whispered prayers to defiant melodies, Delilah and her found family must learn how to heal what they never thought could be forgiven—starting with themselves.

Themes include:
– Chosen family and radical belonging
– The healing power of music and memory
– Intergenerational trauma and emotional survival
– Queer love, complex grief, and second chances
– Mental health, addiction, and the fight to stay alive

With poetic prose, richly drawn characters, and a narrative that pulses with emotional intensity, Ballad of the Broken explores what it means to be known, to be heard, and to fight like hell for the people you love—especially when the world has already written you off.

This novel is perfect for readers who believe that a single voice can shift the silence. That broken things still carry beauty. That every scar has a song.

Because some ballads aren’t born of fame.
Some ballads are born of survival.
And some, even after everything, still beg to be sung.