Book Description
One night Lauren finds a strange man in her flat who claims to be her husband. All the evidence – from pho9tos to electricity bills – suggests he’s right.
Lauren’s attic, she slowly realises, is creating an endless supply of husbands for her.
There’s the one who pretends to play music on her toes.
The one who’s too hot (there must be a catch).
The one who makes a great breakfast sandwich.
The one who turns everything into a double entendre (‘I’ll weed your garden’).
And the one who can calm her unruly tho9ughts with a single touch.
But when you can change husbands as easily as changing a light bulb, how do you know whether the one you have now is the good-enough one, or the wrong one, or the best one? And how long should you keep trying to find out?
My Thoughts
Huge thanks to the publisher for the beautiful hardback copy of The Husbands, I was also invited to a fabulous plant pot paining session – the finished product you can see on my Instagram page, the relevance of the plant pot painting came to light once I’d read the book!
So Holly comes home from her best friend’s hen do to find a strange man in her house, he claims he is her husband and behaves as such, she soon discovers he came from her attic, and if he returns there a new husband will descend the attic ladder in his place. This book is entertaining, slightly (very) bonkers and unique. It is a fun read and Lauren’s loft generates a string of husbands, her vast range of marital experiences are fun and while some husbands last merely seconds, some last longer and then there is the one who got away – the one who unbeknown to Lauren ventured into the attic and never returned.
But invariably a change in husband brings with them bigger changes, known as the butterfly effect, the smallest flutter brings about momentous changes, so in this sliding doors type book, we witness a range of possible lives for Lauren, some the husband is a good fit but the ripple effect is unacceptable and he has to go.
And then the broader issue and I think the important message of this book – when presented with so much choice there is the temptation to keep swiping – or in this case keep returning them to the attic, in the pursuit of perfection, a myth, an ideal. Forgetting perhaps that relationships and marriage take time, effort and commitment. I liked this message and while I enjoyed this book it was on the outer edges of my reading ‘comfort zone’, drifting towards fantasy or dystopia. I know as a reader I can be a bit pedantic, if you can relax and just go with it, this book is great fun. This book will be hugely popular and deservedly so, will you be picking up The Husbands?
Thanks as always for reading.
About the Author
Holly Gramazio is a writer, game designer and curator from Adelaide, currently based in London. She founded the experimental games festival Now Play This, and wrote the script for the award – winning indie video game Dicey Dungeons. she’s particularly interested in rules, play, cities, gardens, games that get people acting creatively and art that gets people interacting with their surroundings in new ways. The Husbands is her first novel.
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