Book Review: Family Gap Year: How We Moved to Brazil, Dropped Our Overscheduled Lives and Created a Sustainable, Happy Future for our Family

Family Gap Year: How We Moved to Brazil, Dropped Our Overscheduled Lives and Created a Sustainable, Happy Future for our Family. Sheila Maloney, Difference Press, 11 November 2021, Paperback and eBook, 176 pages.

Reviewed by Casie Gambrel.

Sheila Maloney’s Family Gap Year is a touching story of self-reflection on how her family broke free from their daily grind and societal expectations to follow their dreams. 

The author is the daughter of a former American Catholic priest from Chicago and a young Brazilian widow who met when her father was sent to a small church in Volta Redonda, Brazil, her mother’s hometown. The family moved back to Chicago when Maloney turned two in search of better opportunities. 

Maloney achieved everything she grew up believing would bring her happiness and fulfillment: a stable career, a loving husband, children, and a nice house. Yet, with each achievement, she felt more disconnected, unfulfilled, and increasingly unhappy with her overscheduled life. She was exhausted and felt disillusioned with middle age and the state of affairs in the U.S. There had to be more to life than feeling stuck. Her family needed an overhaul. She yearned for change and realized through deep introspection that it couldn’t be achieved by modifying her current lifestyle. Previous band-aid solutions such as weight loss and exercise were no longer working as she barely had time for the essential tasks of working and running a household. The life she’d created was not serving her daily needs. There had to be a better way.

Maloney realized she could only make a radical change by unearthing the “why” behind her unhappiness. With the help of a journal, she discovered her why with the first prompt: “If this was the last year you were going to live, what would you like to do, experience, and accomplish?” She wrote from the depths of her soul and realized what she wanted most was to reconnect with her Brazilian roots and extended family. She also had a deep desire for her children to feel more connected to this part of their life. This journal entry became the catalyst for their family gap year. 

The book—part memoir, part self-help, and part travel guide—walks the reader through the development of the author’s year-long plan before, during, and after the adventure. It’s particularly appealing as Maloney doesn’t shy away from her initial hesitations, obligations, and commitments. Yet she pressed on, making a silent pact with herself, and convinced her husband and children of the many reasons they were all ready for a new challenge. She shares the formula that worked for her family to make the move, financially viable. 

The author highlights many parallels between her life in the U.S. (an individualistic, achievement-oriented, secular society) to what she experienced in Brazil (an egalitarian, communal, spiritual society). Maloney’s insights give the reader an understanding of her desire to reconnect with her own spirituality. Shortly after their move to Brazil, her father passed away, and she leaned on the familiarity of religion as a way to feel close to him. She started going back to church again and soon her perceptions of the Catholic religion changed from that of a punitive patriarchal institution to focusing on Jesus’s teachings about forgiveness, simplicity, and family.  

As Maloney and her family adjust to their new life in Brazil, a recipe for happiness starts to reveal itself towards the middle of the book. This recipe is far simpler than what all the overachieving and overscheduling could offer them back home in Chicago. Trips to the local farmers’ market became a ritual. Home-cooked meals shared around the table replaced convenient meals consumed on the go. Better weather gave them the opportunity to spend more time outside in nature soaking up the sun, whether at a local beach or exploring the Amazon. They also introduced daily journaling as a family activity. It’s rewarding to witness how Maloney’s goal to reconnect with her family comes to fruition as they quickly adapt to their new normal. 

Family Gap Year is a delightful, easy-to-read “how to” guide ready to inspire anyone looking to jump off their own hamster wheel and shake things up, figure out what matters most, and potentially explore their own adventure of a lifetime.