The honeymoon - Justin Haythe

The first time that Gordon meets Annie they make love in a park. Soon after, on the forty-forth anniversary of D-Day, they are married. Gordon, though American born, has never had a home. Travelling through the capitals of Europe with his mother, he led a life of barren privilege. Over the course of a year in London Gordon and Annie construct for themselves an idea of married life, until finally their long delayed honeymoon takes them to Venice. Yet the brilliance of Venice seems to distort rather than illuminate. The story gathers an almost unbearable intensity before, in a single act of absurd but devastating violence, the bubble is pricked and the emptiness at the core of their gilded lives revealed.