The Husbands: A Read with Jenna Pick
A Novel
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- ¥1,800
Publisher Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA’S APRIL BOOK CLUB PICK • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2024 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, PEOPLE, PARADE, AND BOOKRIOT
The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options? (“A bottomless champagne flute of a novel —The Washington Post)
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.
As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Finding the love of your life can be difficult, but what if an endless array of choices appeared and disappeared before your eyes? Holly Gramazio’s dazzling romantic fantasy explores how finding the perfect partner can be as simple as changing a lightbulb—sort of. When Lauren returns home after a night out with the girls, she’s startled to find a tall, dark stranger standing in her London flat claiming to be her husband. And the photos on her phone and the decor in her (or their?) place reflect a long, loving relationship. Lauren is rightfully confused, but just as she’s warming up to the idea of her life being flipped upside down, she’s thrown for another loop when her new husband climbs up the stairs to the attic and a completely different husband climbs down. As a seemingly endless number of husbands climb in and out of her life (including one who descends from the attic completely naked), Gramazio’s witty and wondrous tale of love, partnership, and the burden of choice becomes a hilarious look at romance’s uniquely perplexing predicaments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Video game designer Gramazio debuts with a charming speculative novel about a woman's difficulty settling on a mate. When Lauren, in her early 30s and decidedly single, returns one night to her London flat from a boozy evening out, she's greeted by a total stranger who says he's her husband, a claim mysteriously borne out by her photographs and texting history. This is alarming enough, but things get weirder still after Lauren's supposed husband climbs up the attic ladder to change a light bulb and a different man descends, one who also claims to be her husband. This revolving door of spouses persists for months, and Lauren discovers that various circumstances of her life—her circle of friends, her fashion sense, her career choices, even her apartment decor—alter with each change of partner. Gramazio's inventiveness and humor save the Groundhog Day–esque plot from tedious repetition (Lauren rejects one man immediately for wearing shoes with individual toes, another for filling a room with Funko Pops). Though Lauren's drastic action near the novel's conclusion feels a bit out of sync with the rest of the story, there's plenty of intelligence and candor in the author's creative spin on the conundrum of commitment. Gramazio is worth keeping tabs on.
