The Marriage Gap Year, page 31
Emma watched her son. He was smiling. She saw in him the possibility of a life unscripted, with all the joy and sadness and wonder that lay before him. “I think he’ll be all right.” She took Rob’s hand and squeezed it, finding comfort in the familiar shape of his fingers, the leathery feel of his skin.
Couples did things. They found workarounds, ways to enjoy the best of each other and avoid the inconveniences. They got bigger beds, or separate beds; they slept in separate rooms, or in separate houses. It was their marriage, after all, and they were free to make the rules.
The ocean sparkled in the sunlight and white caps fizzed briefly on the dimpled surface of the water. Way out, a tiny freighter ship steamed forward, leaving a frothy wake as it cut through the rolling waves.
Acknowledgments
It’s a persistent fiction that writers complete a book alone. There is always a team, whose expertise, labor, advice, patience and generosity contribute to the conception, creation and publication of a novel. I have a large cast to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.
I am most thankful to my wife, Suzie, for her precious insights, and for the years of open, honest and fearless conversation that have empowered us both to live our best lives together. You taught me to go after my dreams.
Thank you to my illustrious writer’s group, Clare Strahan, Rachel Matthews, Sian Prior, Ilka Tampke and Suzy Zail. I’m blessed to have such talented writers review my work. Your feedback took me beyond the places I could travel alone and helped bring this story to life.
To my editors, Penny Johnson and Lorna Hendry, who quietly make me appear a better writer than I am on my own. I appreciate your skill and diplomacy and feel privileged to work with you.
To my cover designer, Bailey McGinn, you turned a mood board into a dramatic work of art.
I am also grateful for Tauseef Ahmed whose beautiful illustrations made the book feel real to me, even before I’d finished writing it.
Thank you to AJ Collins for doing such a wonderful job of the audiobook version of this novel. It’s somehow comforting to know this book exists beyond the page.
To the people who shared their relationship stories with me in preparation for this book. Your courage and creativity demonstrate how relationships can change when people are willing to negotiate what togetherness looks like.
Finally, I want to thank my children, Charlotte and Alex, whose mature observations about life, relationships and what makes a good story found their way into this book. The future looks better for having you both in it.
With love and gratitude to everyone,
Yannick
About the Author
Yannick Thoraval is an award-winning writer and teacher.
His work has appeared in national publications such as The Conversation, The Financial Review, The Big Issue and The Australian. Yannick was also managing editor of Home Truths: An Anthology of Refugee and Migrant Writing.
His debut novel, The Current, a climate fiction, was commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. His second novel, White Foam, was shortlisted for Hachette Australia’s Richell Prize. He has also won the International New Millennium Writings Award for Nonfiction.
Yannick holds a master’s degree in history, a PhD in creative writing, and teaches fiction, creative nonfiction and communications at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
www.yannickthoraval.com
First published 2024 in Melbourne, Australia, by Further Publishing
PO Box 12200
Middle Camberwell, VIC 3124
Australia
www.furtherpublishing.com
Copyright © Yannick Thoraval, 2024
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Further acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and pays respect to elders, past, present and emerging. We recognize and respect the more than sixty thousand years of storytelling, art and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organizations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.
Thoraval, Yannick
The Marriage Gap Year
ISBN: 978-1-7635314-0-6 (Australia, UK)
ISBN: 978-1-7635314-1-3 (US, International)
ISBN: 978-1-7635314-3-7 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-7635314-2-0 (Audiobook)
Cover layout and design by Bailey McGinn, www.baileydesignsbooks.com
Illustrations by Tauseef Ahmed, www.tauseefahmedart.com
Printed by KDP and IngramSpark
Typeset in Baskerville by Lorna Hendry, www.lornahendry.com
Architectural Drawing in Chapter Fourteen, Chemist Shop Renovation in Elwood/St Kilda 1917: State Library of Victoria Archive, Architectural Drawings Collection, Record ID 9939647501107636
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Disclaimer
All care has been taken in the preparation of the information herein, but no responsibility can be accepted by the publisher or author for any damages resulting from the misinterpretation of this work.
Yannick Thoraval, The Marriage Gap Year
