Holly Gramazio hits it out of the park with this hilarious book about a woman with a magic attic. She arrives home one night to find that her house looks totally different than it did when she left, and there is a man in the kitchen. She freaks out, and he calms her down and helps her nurse her hangover. She looks through her phone and discovers an entire lived history with this man in her camera roll.
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Release Date: April 2, 2024
I read The Husbands via the Libby App, as an e-book, courtesy of my local public library. I was the first person to check this book out from the library, because I had tagged the title as “notify me” when it was added to the library catalog. I happened to get the notification that it was added while I was using my phone, and I immediately checked it out. Yay for libraries!
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio: A Book Review
Lauren gets home from her friend’s “hen do” (us Americans call it a Bachelorette Party) and finds a strange man in her house. When she freaks out, he placates her, because he is her husband and thinks she is just drunk. Somehow, she’s entered a universe where she has a husband! She checks her phone and finds a few years worth of photos in her camera roll, and sees that there are wedding photos on the wall. She is in the photos with this man!
She calls around and asks her friends if she is married, asks them if anything funny happened when they went home, etc, and determines that she’s lost her mind. There is plenty of physical evidence that this man is her husband.
Then, before her very eyes, he goes to retrieve something from the attic.
A different man comes down the attic. The photographs on the wall have changed, as have the photos in her camera roll. Her hair and body sometimes change, as she sends husbands back up the attic ladder again and again until she finds one she likes.
Eventually, she just accepts that she has a magic attic that keeps sending new husbands, and if anything goes wrong in the world for herself or someone she loves, she can just reset everything by sending the husband back up. What ensues is an anthology of strange encounters with men that she has met and married in some other world. Eventually, she starts looking for the one she wants to keep.
While searching for the perfect husband, she learns so much about herself from the men she chooses and the way she changes with each one. Both the good and the bad rub off on her and change the way she behaves in small ways. This is Gramazio exploring the ways long term relationships change us over time, as well as how hard it is to make a decision when we have unlimited choices to choose from.
Gramazio is a video game writer, and you can see aspects of this throughout the book, and I think it makes her the perfect author for this concept.
I enjoyed The Husbands so much that I looked up an article about the book (Washington Post), and read that she had so many separate stories written about various men who emerged from the magic attic and that she had to cut a lot out to shorten the novel. I am not surprised – because this book was pretty long and took me longer to read it than usual (Sorry for the 13 people waiting for me to finish, I did my best!) – it was unputdownable and I’ll often think about this book.
I honestly love this concept and would read sequels or other books with similar premises, like a man getting different wives, or different children, or changing bosses or assistants. This is a five star book, and I’m going to recommend you read it! You’ll thank me, really.
Publisher’s Summary
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?
Note: Book club questions may contain spoilers!
Book Club Discussion Questions for The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
- 1. After Michael goes back into the attic and another man comes down, Lauren starts to expirement with the world around her to see what changes and what doesn’t. For example, she learns in one world that her sister no longer has her children, and sends the men back until that’s back to normal. What experiments would you have tried?
- 2. As Lauren jumps from world to world, her appearance and demeanor change a little each time. She’s clearly influenced by her partners. In what way has a current or past partner influenced you, for good or bad?
- 3. Who was your favorite husband? Why?
- 4. When Carter heads back to the attic, Lauren is devastated. She goes to great lengths to see him again. Do you think she fell in love with Carter or do you think she would eventually have sent him back?
- 5. Talk about Lauren and Bohai’s arrangement and circumstances.
- 6. If husbands started coming out of your magic attic, what would you do? What practical steps would you take?
- 7. Let’s talk about Felix. She’s married an evil billionaire, and he seems quite nice and caring. Would you have sent him back up the attic?
- 8. Have you ever had too many choices and chose at random?
- 9. Would you have kept the magic attic? Would you have tried to find the perfect husband or just rolled the dice?
- 10. Talk about Zach Ephron. Why do you think she disliked him so much, when everyone around them seemed to love him?
- 11. They are almost always friends with the next-door neighbors, Toby and Maryam – including one situation in which they are TOO close. Talk about how the characters themselves and the relationships changed.
- 12. If they decide to make a television show or movie from The Husbands, who would you cast to play Lauren? Carter? Michael? Bohai? Toby and Maryam? Kieran?
Consider inviting Holly Gramazio to your book club meeting! Some authors love to jump into a Zoom call and talk about their books with readers! Her email is holly@hollygramazio.net and please do not abuse it by sending spam or adding her to your newsletter.
If you loved these books, you’ll love the Husbands! If you loved The Husbands, you’ll love these books!
