Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling meets Groundhog Day. The Husbands is an absolutely hilarious novel about a woman who comes home from a hen party and finds a man in her London flat. Most alarming is that it turns out he is her husband. She has zero memories of him or getting married. As she panic scrolls through her phone, it becomes obvious that either he is an amazing spy who has infiltrated her digital life, as well as her flat, OR she is actually married. WTF.
My first thought was that poor Lauren has early onset dementia. But no. She has a magic attic. When one husband goes up, another comes down. Lauren filters through these men faster that you could swipe left or right on Tinder. There are a few keepers, but they only last a few days. The most promising one, Carter, inadvertently enters the attic and he’s lost to her forever. The least promising husband, Amos, appears a few times and he is as terrible as the Amos she broke up pre-magic attic.
Lauren has an infinite number of possible husbands but as she swaps one version of her life for another, the philosophical question arises: when will she stop looking for the best life and start living the one she has?
I thought this novel was really funny. The Husbands audiobook is a hoot. The narration is fabulous. The end of chapter 12 has a wonderful bit of back and forth between Lauren and two friends, one of whom is getting married. The dialogue is really cheeky and had me laughing out loud.
If you like Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible then you’ll enjoy this bit of romance meets magical realism. It’s a great debut from Holly Gramazio.
Read a sample or listen on Audible on Amazon.