Bestseller author Marian Keyes on new book The Break: I wanted to be realistic

The Limerick-born writer dominates the world of women’s fiction, but her work goes beyond the lazy ‘chick-lit’ label.

After soaring to fame with her first novel, Watermelon in 1995, Marian is best known for her dark themes written with her sharp Limerick wit; she often takes from her own experiences, including that of depression, and of recovering from recovering from alcoholism, the topic of Watermelon.

Now the publishing sensation is back with book number 13, The Break.

The Break is what it says on the tin. Based on the life of married couple Hugh and Amy who, between them, have three children. Hugh, who is mourning the loss of his father, consequently has a midlife crisis.

Although he still loves Amy, he wants “freedom”’ from their marriage, and goes travelling for six months, losing himself in Southeast Asia and living a single man’s life.  Amy has little choice in the matter and is forced into a marital break.

Faced with teenage abortion, blended families, male temptation, parents with Alzheimer’s and hurt, The Break is a tale of a modern marriage and modern families.

At 54 Marian has been married to Tony Baines, with whom she lives in the Dublin suburbs, for 22 years and Amy and Hugh’s predicament seemed an obvious theme for the author to write about.

“Our life expectancy has increased and people are reassessing what they are doing with their time,” she says. “We are changing every day and the relationship you had seven years into your marriage is not the same one you have now, its important not to be delusional.”

Written in chapters that jump from current day, to life before children, the author is careful to create a story where the man is not vilified, and as in all her novels, the reader can take comfort in being able to relate to most of her characters.

“I wanted to be realistic. In real life we are all flawed. I mean, I am prone to immaturity and unpredictable emotion.  I wanted it to be a mature look at modern marriage.” 

The softly-spoken author is right; one can’t help but feel sorry for Hugh, whose last resort is to run from his bereavement. But it’s even easier to like him when she compares him to her own husband, Tony, who she clearly adores, “Hugh is very kind and Tony is very kind. If Tony holds a crying baby it will stop crying.”

However, Marian is quick to point out that Tony, like Hugh, has his own ways of coping when things get tough.

“He hasn’t ever wanted a break, I haven’t wanted a break, but he goes and climbs all the highest mountains around the world, which are very dangerous. Like Hugh his dad died last September and a friend of ours died in October, and this is his way of coping”. 

“You cannot always control what your partner wants to do. You must accept they are a different person to you and live with that pain and let them do it.”

Moving on to Amy’s character in The Break, Marian explains that she created her to be the “average” woman who many could relate to, someone sandwiched between a marriage, children, a job and her parents.

The author admits that although Amy is not similar to herself ,she did bring in her own personal experience of having a father who suffers from Alzheimer’s into the plot,. “A lot of my time goes on my dad, Amy is the same.” 

Although Marian has not been through a ‘break’ in her marriage, she freely admits it hasn’t always been plain sailing; “I had my own time in the wilderness. I had a horrible spell of awful depression and during that I loved nobody. For eighteen months I was suicidal every day. I felt like I didn’t love Tony; I wanted him to leave me because I thought I was making him miserable.

“It was so lonely for him. The woman he had married was long gone.” Looking up, she smiles and says, “These moments are the tests of the relationship, and we are happier than ever now.”

So how would Marian react if she was faced with her own plot? “It would cause me unbearable pain, unlike Amy, who has her children to keep her going, I would have nothing, I would want to go to bed and die.”

With Marian’s last sentence lingering in the air, she explains why she never had a child. “Tony and I wanted to have children, it was part of my plan. I wanted six – I am from a big Irish family.  We did everything we could, but it didn’t happen.

“We got over it, we focused on what we had, the pain healed and no it doesn’t cause me pain to write about families.”

Marian is a huge advocate for women and uses her power as an author to write about burning feminist topics and The Break is no exception. Without giving too much away, Amy’s children fall into dark waters, and teenage abortion is addressed.

“I personally wouldn’t have an abortion but I wrote about it because it is a worldwide issue, especially in Ireland and America where, with Trump, women’s rights are burning out. It shouldn’t be difficult for women to have an abortion. If men could get pregnant there wouldn’t be these issues.” She sighs, “I want my books to show women that we are not alone.” 

Online abuse – ‘trolling’ – is another of the book’s themes. “Twitter is like a lynch mob, people are desperate to get angry. Next week when the book is published in Ireland and the anti-abortioners get wind, I am sure I will be deluged. I am simply asking, why troll nice people? The world is hard enough.”

So what does happen to Hugh and Amy’s marriage? Marian answers with caution, “Hugh gets back and they are a world apart from each other…” She pauses smiles and says, “but I believe in love”. 

The Break took three years to write but there is no rest for this superwoman who is already onto her next book featuring seven key characters, the main one (naturally) being a woman. “I will always be a storyteller and if I am not writing them, I am speaking them, it’s the way I was brought up.”

The Break by Marian Keyes is published by Michael Joseph at £20