Hello! Welcome to The Aftermath, a serialized novel about love, life, and relevance in the New Normal.
After a ten-year courtship, thirtysomethings Hugo Champion and Amory Trevor-Hopkins are newly engaged and planning a destination wedding tailor-made for Amory’s million-plus Instagram followers. On the surface, they epitomise privilege and a tony West London lifestyle. By anyone’s estimation, Hugo and Amory are the ultimate Chelsea power couple, at least that is until Hugo is struck down by the virus and, believing his chances of survival are next to nil, Amory begins planning for a new life in the “new normal” that doesn’t necessarily accommodate Hugo’s survival. It is the aftermath of Hugo’s illness and recovery that forms the basis of The Aftermath.
The novel was written over the past year as a way for me to try to make sense of this new reality in which we all find ourselves. I’ve always been an avid reader, and last year I found myself focusing specifically on the novels and short stories of Evelyn Waugh, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paul Bowles, and Anais Nin. What struck me most profoundly was the way in which these writers handled the themes of mass trauma (World War One and the Spanish Influenza of 1918-1920), sexual identity and self-determinism, and the dawning of an utterly new and changed world unlike anything that had come before. The parallels I drew between then and now were startling, and dare I say it, extremely inspirational. The Aftermath is, in a way, the outcome of this literary immersion.
A bit about myself: a dual UK/US citizen, I am a 20-year publishing industry veteran, having worked as an acquisitions editor, literary agent, publishing consultant, and currently marketing manager for an imprint of a tech book publisher here in the UK. I live in a small village in Northamptonshire, where I moved in 2019 from Chicago. I have recently started an MBA at University College London and, when not in the countryside, can most frequently be found in London, Oxford, and Birmingham.
So I welcome you, dear reader, into this brave new world for better or worse, for richer or poorer… A new chapter will post every Monday (from tomorrow 11th October 2021) and the best part of it is, subscription is absolutely free. I’m just really keen to hear from all of you. Your feedback will be much appreciated!
Thank you and enjoy!
Jon Malysiak