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Book Summary and Reviews of The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

The Husbands

A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

by Holly Gramazio

  • Published:
  • Apr 2024, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Charming...there's plenty of intelligence and candor in the author's creative spin on the conundrum of commitment." —Publishers Weekly

"The plot allows the author to explore current attitudes and approaches to dating and mating from a fresh perspective... A fun take on a big question." —Kirkus Reviews

"Delightfully addictive ... a bottomless champagne flute of a novel." —The Washington Post

"The Husbands is a wily and wonderful exploration of modern decision-making, kaleidoscopic and bright and very, very funny." —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

"Richly characterized, philosophical, and funny. I enjoyed all the husbands, even (especially?) the terrible ones. A time-bending gem about the way we live now." —Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

This information about The Husbands was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

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 videogame 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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