The Husbands

What a fun -- and thought-provoking -- read.

Lauren comes home slightly drunk from a party and Michael, her husband, meets her at the door. Except, as far as she knows, she isn't married. Never has been. Except that there's a wedding photo of her and Michael on the wall. And several on her phone, along with a long string of text messages. As if that isn't enough, when Michael goes into the attic, a different man returns, and he is her husband. The decor of her flat changes, photos and messages on her phone changes....

Lauren quickly comes to understand that every time a husband goes into the attic, a different one comes down. At first, she notices small changes in her environment: decorations, furniture. And some bigger changes: her show more neighbours are swingers, she has a different job, her niece and nephew no longer exist.

At first, Lauren is looking for a husband suitable to take to her friend's upcoming wedding, given that her ex will be there. As the novel progresses, she beings to look for a husband she can settle down with -- and one where her world is acceptable to her in terms of her job, her family and friends.

Lauren is a great characters. She is resourceful and strong. She makes some bad decisions, and some choices that are downright shallow, but is ultimately a good and thoughtful person.

I loved the premise of this book. It shows how life can change based on our choices. It looks at our sense of identity. And it examines the issue of knowing when you've found the right person to spend your life with; how the perfect can be the enemy of the good. show less

3.5 ? Another British comedy - far-fetched, but thought-provoking and very funny. Lauren Strickland comes home late one night from her best friend Elena's 'hen do' (love the British-isms) a bit drunk, but not so incapacitated that she would forget she had a husband. But that is who meets her at the door of their flat, a man she has never seen before who clearly knows her and treats her like his wife. She is baffled and feels like she has entered a parallel universe as she tries to figure out who he is, how long they've been married, and what else in her life might've changed. Thank goodness for google, her photo roll and social media - she discovers the husband is Michael Callebauts and she casually inquires of friends and her sister show more some of the missing info from this bizarre situation. It gets weirder - when he goes up into the attic to change a lightbulb, a new, different husband climbs down. Early on we have to buy into the premise that her attic is magically generating husbands, but it is conveyed so humorously, that curiosity to see where it goes, propels the book along. Once Lauren gets the hang of the attic, it becomes a virtual parade of husbands - with each she has a new aspect to her life - some drastically different and some she keeps for weeks and others she sends back within minutes: "she sends back grumpy husbands, husbands she doesn't like the look of, husbands who are not hot enough, a husband who is too hot (there must, she thinks, be a catch.) p. 280. Initially, she is patient and she wants a good match to be her husband at Elena's upcoming wedding, especially because she is sitting at a table with her ex, Amos. In one iteration, Amos is the husband. Back he goes - Lauren has gotten good at making excuses and requests that send these men into the attic. For awhile, it is like a party trick, but after hundreds, some menacing, one delightful who goes into the attic unbidden, leaving Lauren a little heartbroken, the whole thing becomes wearying. So many choices, no conceivable pattern, and her own life re-setting each time. Then Bohai arrives and after a couple days, makes an excuse to go into the attic - this alerts Lauren - it has never happened that way - and she realized he too is experiencing the time-warp/travel life re-set with new partners phenomenon. It is such a relief for both of them to have someone who finally understands - they stay together for months just for the comfort of truth and compatibility, but they aren't in love. He does become a friend and ally and they help each other out of future marriages for various, humorous reasons. The author manages to keep this concept going with enough deviations and reflection from Lauren to address some deeper topics - how do you know when you have the right 'forever' person? Clearly there is some reason each of the men and she are together - what little piece of herself fits? Do all the choices just complicate things and prevent the making of a decision? Is love the same as comfort? It all wears on Lauren after a year's time and literally hundreds of husbands. The ending is a little abrupt, but actually resolves the never-ending process in a thoughtful way that doesn't feel too forced or convenient, like 'it was all a drunken dream!," which would've been lame and frustrating. Overall, this debut novel was a compelling diversion with some things to consider, or not, if you just want the fun. show less

Love the one you’re with” is the song’s advice, but is that really still the best approach?
This has to be strangest, yet most cleverly compiled story that I have ever read. When Lauren, a single woman living in London, returns home a little wobbly after having attended a friend’s party, she encounters a strange man in her apartment, (flat). It appears that he knows her, and, despite her concerns, he doesn’t seem to represent any type of threat. Now here's where it gets off the wall "weird"...a good weird though. Lauren finally figures out that he actually IS her husband...only he's the husband she’s somehow acquired in another life. She also, after a bit of searching and trying to remember if she really remembers marrying show more him, she comes to the conclusion that the attic over her apartment (flat), thanks to a recent electrical malfunction, will now be sending her an endless stream of husbands.

Yep...another one will appear once she sends the previous one back upstairs to the attic. There's no bigamy taking place...no cheating, she is actually, at the time of their appearances, married to each one. Lauren finds her own circumstances, her job, her hairstyle, her dress, the decorating scheme of her flat, all changed with the appearance of each subsequent spouse, and she soon realizes that this is not a “time loop” .... time is actually advancing as she works her way through all her possible spouses.

The husbands all differ from one another. Some are tolerable, some are quite attractive, some are completely “no way". Who, in their right mind, would ever want to spend a lifetime with someone whose idea of hot romance is when nestling, (I couldn't in a thousand years make this up), is to place "the tip of their nose in the corner of your closed eye"?

The author of this mad-cap adventure, Holly Gramazio, has presented a comical fantasy rom-com based on an unlikely premise, but the plot has allowed her to explore the current attitudes and approaches to dating and mating from a really weird, entirely unusual, but still....fresh perspective: When you take into consideration the infinite variety of people there are in the world, how can you really, 100%, know for sure “the one” when there may be a better "one" just around the corner...or descending the attic staircase?

Lauren’s madcap romp with the parade of spouses takes a few serious turns, particularly when one is more than reluctant to climb back up those stairs, a truly comical romp is all here. A really fun take on a very big question. show less

It's been so long since I picked up a book based on widespread popularity, rather than a recommendation from someone trusted, and truly loved it, that I was prepared to be bored or disappointed by this one, or both. Luckily, neither is the case! I found it entertaining and funny, and just generally engaging.

Sometimes it felt a bit like Gramazio and her friends may have played a game of coming up with traits and pasts (good and bad) for the husbands descending from the attic, but never in a bad way. Often I thought the plot introducing a husband or a scenario just as I started to formulate a "but what about....?" question, satisfying me before I'd even fully articulated it to myself. Other readers may find it tedious or too obvious, show more especially in the scenes where Lauren tests the magic attic's abilities, but it worked for me. Not too much analysis or heavy thought needed to have fun with the story.

The general themes are about finding happiness, what that means, and the things that tie Lauren (and anyone) to others. It's a portal fantasy to parallel realities, but the main character isn't the one who passes through the portal - and yet, her reality changes around her. How that works and the trickiness of triggering another portal shift were among my favorite parts. Lauren at one point in the book reflects that it's like a time loop, but always moving forward - there is loss and grief even when shifting to a new reality is a relief. show less

It’s the age-old story. You arrive home from a hen do a bit the worse for wear and there is a man coming down the ladder from your attic. He’s your husband. Except you’ve never had a husband before. And, looking around, you see that most of the stuff in your flat has changed. But he knows your name — it’s Lauren — and he suggests that you should drink some water before you go to sleep. (You really should!) And just when you get your head around the bizarre “fact” that you actually must be married to this man (not least because there are many photos on your phone from your “wedding”), he goes up into the attic again and…what!? A totally different man comes down and he’s your husband. Yes, definitely drink more show more water.

It’s such a delightfully odd scenario — one husband goes up into the attic and an entirely different one comes down (with appropriate alterations to your flat environment and life, e.g. sometimes you have the same job you’ve always had, and other times you are, y’know, the manager of a hardware store) — that Holly Gramazio gets a lot of mileage out of Lauren coping with this new phenomenon. The fact that she sustains it for the full length of a novel is even more impressive. Plenty of opportunities for comedy and pathos. And also a bit of worry about the existential implications of sending a “husband” you aren’t fully satisfied with back up to the attic to get that thing you put up there knowing that you will be resetting your life when the new “husband” emerges.

Don’t think about it too much. Just go with the flow and the wackiness and hope that the author sticks the landing. (She pretty much does!)

Gently recommended (for fun). show less

Fascinating premise, excellent execution. See also: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, Famous Men Who Never Lived by K Chess

When Lauren returns from her friend Elena's "hen do," she finds a strange man in her apartment, who insists he's her husband - and evidence (in the apartment itself, in her phone) bears his assertion out. Soon, Lauren realizes that every time a husband goes up into the attic, a new one comes down in his place. At first, she concentrates on finding one she can take to Elena's wedding, but later, she tries to find a permanent one. Each one has a problem, from minor (won't trim his nose hair; makes terrible jokes) to major (controlling in an abusive way; he's cheating on her; she's cheating on him; they're in massive show more debt; her sister Nat is no longer married to Adele and Lauren's niece and nephew no longer exist; their downstairs neighbors are swingers now, or broken up), so Lauren is searching not only for the right husband, but the right world: where her family, job, friends, and neighbors are all versions she recognizes.

*Spoilers*

As Lauren cycles through hundreds of husbands - sometimes sending them back into the attic immediately, sometimes spending days or weeks with them - one arrives who is having a similar experience: Bohai keeps appearing out of places in people's houses (attics, closets, storage trunks) where he is married to them. Lauren and Bohai are both immensely relieved and interested to talk to someone else in the same boat, and they manage to stay connected even when he moves on. Lauren also realizes that her attic isn't creating the husbands from scratch: they exist in the world, just in different timelines. They appear in Lauren's life - Jason the gardener/landscaper, her real-life ex Amos - and she can look them up on social media (Felix the possibly evil millionaire, Carter the handsome American). Sometimes a husband reappears from the attic a second time (is it meant to be? No), and once she is divorcing, so she tries regular dating on the apps again, but grows tired of it.

At last, she decides, no more: the next husband will be the last one. She forces the second-to-last one into the attic, then leaves the house so as not to see the new one. She lures him out of the house, then goes into the attic herself, where the fuzzy, faulty electrics start a fire. She grabs the most important things (passports, laptops, beloved houseplant) and leaves, committed to a new life with Sam.

Re-read July 2025

Quotes

It isn't her fault that life has provided her with an excessively speculative query. (57)

All of her husbands are men that some version of herself might have chosen to marry, and who might have chosen to marry her. (68)

She has always thought of her willingness to go along with things, her outsourcing of decisions to friends and circumstance, as passivity, not courage. (101)

In a time loop, the horror is that there's no progress, just a constant uncontrollable reset; there's no point doing anything because its effects will never play out long-term. (146)

Sometimes it feels like there's a pattern, something she ought to be able to figure out....But the pattern always falls apart, and returns to just: men she might have liked, and who might have liked her. Every husband, she's pretty sure, is someone that she might have met, somewhere, somehow, if she'd done things a little differently. Every husband is someone she might have enjoyed spending time with, and who might have enjoyed spending time with her. Every husband id someone that she might - if things had been just a little bit different...have married. (160)

"This whole situation makes it hard to trick yourself about what you're like." (Bohai, 178)

She has always hated being wrong, the idea of doing something that turns out to be an irredeemable mistake. (212)

There is a time, she thinks, at the start of any relationship, when the process of falling in love softens a personality, like wax in a warm room. And so two people in love change, just a little, pushing their wax figures together, a protuberance here smoothed down but creating a dip there. It doesn't last long, the time when love can gently change who you are, and in the relationships that she's visited over the last six months, the moment has long passed. She has been presented with the shape of her new husband, and invited to either contort to fit or reject him wholesale. (215)

She doesn't always like the new versions of herself, but they help her understand the edges of who she might be. (229)

What she really needs, she thinks, is to find someone she likes enough that she sees the best in him, and then the criteria will fall into place. (289)

She's had so many lives, and some of them were bad, but a lot of them were good, and maybe there isn't a single best path forward that she has to find. (321) show less

Gramazio jumps directly into her story: Lauren has returned home from a night out with friends, and there is a man in her apartment. Once she gets over that shock, she begins to notice that the apartment has changed -- different furniture and art, and photos of herself that she doesn't recognize, including what seems to be a photo from her wedding to the strange man.

As if that's not enough, things get even stranger when the man goes into the attic. A different man comes down, and once again, Lauren's surroundings have changed. The cycle continues: Every time a husband goes into the attic, the attic sends down a new husband.

You could handle that premise in a lot of ways. It could veer into horror; you could emphasize the comic fantasy, show more and send Lauren on a quest to find the wizard who can stop this; it could become a Serious Literary Novel, exploring questions of identity and the importance of permanent relationships.

Gramazio puts a mostly rom-com spin on things, which is not to say that this is a rom-com (there's no one guy to focus on, no gradually developing story of true love, no happily ever after). But it's mostly got that light, breezy tone, in which the author is taking us for a cheerful romp. Things get a bit more serious in the final chapters, to an extent that I don't think Gramazio quite pulls off, but this is mostly a fizzy comedy, and a darned good one at that.

Every time you think the story is falling into a rut -- "OK, how many more husbands are we going to test and reject?" -- Gramazio finds an unexpected variation on the magic attic that deepens and enriches the story. And by the end, it actually does become an exploration of identity and permanence, a reminder that you don't have to write a Serious Literary Novel to examine serious ideas. Thoughtful and fun aren't mutually exclusive. show less