POPULAR FICTION

THE BREAK ★★★ by Marian Keyes Michael Joseph, £20

WHEN Amy’s husband Hugh announces that he wants a break from their relationship, she is gobsmacked. She and her steady, dependable husband have been married for 17 years and as far as she is concerned they are happy together.

But following the death of Hugh’s dad and his close friend Gavin, Hugh is overcome with the urge to escape family life. Using inheritance money from his dad he plans to travel around south-east Asia for six months and have flings before returning home.

This is the premise for Marian Keyes’ eagerly anticipated 13th novel The Break. In it Keyes takes a hiatus from the Walsh family, who feature in five of her other novels including her debut Watermelon, to introduce a new cast of characters: the O’Connells. But although the O’Connells are new to readers, Keyes’ warm and humorous portrayal of them soon makes them feel like old friends.

Amy’s daughter, 22-year-old Neeve, provides much amusement when she begins featuring her granny on makeover videos on YouTube which go viral.

Meanwhile Amy’s interfering sisters do their best to support her after Hugh’s departure but their help isn’t always what she needs. And although their cantankerous dad doesn’t understand much of what’s going on due to his dementia, that doesn’t stop him from interjecting with his opinion.

As the novel unfolds, Keyes tackles the tricky subject of what happens when love fades in a long-term relationship. As Amy learns to find her feet again, she begins to realise her identity has got lost after years of being married.

Despite the serious themes of the book, The Break is a light-hearted read and the O’Connell family provide a lovable cast of characters who will hopefully return in future novels. However, as a reader, it’s hard to get past the fact that our heroine Amy so willingly accepts Hugh’s departure at the onset.

Although she begs him not to leave she doesn’t threaten to end their relationship if he goes through with the trip.

What’s more, it is difficult to understand why Hugh is portrayed as a dependable and loving father when he so readily leaves Amy’s daughter Neeve whom he’s raised as his own, his own daughter Kiara, and Amy’s niece Sofie, whom the family have informally adopted, to travel the world for six months.