My Husband: A Novel

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The Narrator is like an extreme version of those people who live their lives by just reading self help articles online, and she quite literally follows them to a T. It's equally hilarious and heartbreaking to see how insecure she is and have these insecurities brought to life by her equally conniving husband. At the same time, it's an also a compelling portrait of power imbalances within a marriage and the ways in which men grind down women in an effort to boost their own egos or exert control over their wives.

Our unnamed Parisian housewife is madly in love with her husband. She even resents the children from taking his attention away from her. She will do anything for him. She orbits him like the earth orbits the sun. She thinks he is the most charismatic and charming man. With vigor and zest she proudly worships the ground he walks on. Yet, she's filled with anxiety that he will leave her someday and that thought is utterly dreadful to her. While I tend to be more obsessed with my husband’s exes than my husband himself, this book had me reeling, laughing and re-examining my life choices. I loved every minute.”— Jenny Mollen Biggs, New York Times bestselling author of City of Likes As he emerges gently from his sleep, my husband moves closer to me, but I turn around in time to escape his grasp. That’s the rule. Last night, he went to sleep without wishing me good night, so he doesn’t get any cuddles from me now. It’s out of the question for me to give in.” Sometimes I ask myself whether I should feel guilty about going through my husband's things. But I always come to the conclusion that I should not, for one simple reason: I wish he would do the same. I would finally have the proof of his jealousy and the confirmation of his commitment. Unfortunately, I know he doesn't. Unfortunately, my husband trusts me."From the outside, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she's never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated. Throughout the book, she talks very highly of her husband but her insecurities and unhealthy obsession slowly unravels the farther I progressed through the book. She would never refer to her husband by his name, she only referred to him as “my husband” which treads into the territory of iconizing and objectifying him. After a certain time, I feel that her husband begins to lose the feeling of him being an actual individual and more of an entity of her imagination. The main character is captivated with the idea of being the only person for her husband and detests having to spend time with friends or family because she sees her husband to be enough for her but takes offense when her husband wants to spend time with their mutual friends. This form of obsession even affects her ability to parent, she doesn’t have the motherly instinct many mothers would have towards their children. She states that she would be fine without them and that’s telling of how dependent she is on her husband’s every move. I really enjoyed the themes and flow of the story, it progressed smoothly and I didn’t feel like anything should’ve been added or omitted. Maud Ventura excellently showcased a story where one individual with obsessive and controlling thoughts did things that she shouldn’t have done. The hypocrisy and justification of the character’s actions was wild to say the least but added to the character and story development. The winner of France's First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies—how well can you really know your spouse?—and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is a gripping read that is as fierce as it is funny—compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.

Ramadan’s exacting translation holds the reader in her grip, and what makes this so thrilling is not just the narrator’s surprising ruthlessness but how Ventura causes the reader to repeatedly change their mind about who’s to blame for the messed up marriage all the way to the explosive ending. It’s a bold and memorable first outing."How could *She* explain why she has a solitaire diamond that’s practically identical to the one he gave her the day he proposed? She hides it in the false bottom of her jewelry box. That's why I never feel guilty for being unfaithful: How could I when I do it out of love for my husband? Plus, I know how to set limits: I've never cheated on my husband on any day other than Thursday." Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage meets Ruth Rendell. . . . My Husband possesses a dark, clinical and raspy humor. With a very well done final twist, as unpredictable as it is Machiavellian, you won’t want to read this vaudeville just once." — Le Nouvel Obs Over the course of one week, a nameless female Parisian wife and mother psychoanalyzes her 15 year marriage to her husband. Love is her hobby of choice, as she is a desperate romantic. Or is she just neurotic, paranoid, and jealous? Monday: “I’m in love with my husband or should I say, I’m still in love with my husband. I love my husband as much as the first day I met him.”

Irrémédiablement attirée par cette couverture qui présente une sorte de Bree Van De Kamp, j'ai lu ce roman presque d'un coup (en deux jours en réalité), totalement happée par un récit qui n'a absolument rien d'une "irrésistible drôlerie" comme le dit la quatrième de couverture... Servile as that sounds, she’s also manipulative and, when she needs to be, ruthless. Because it turns out that her infatuation is matched only by her fury at her husband’s apparent failure to return her obsessive passion. Every interaction is analysed with neurotic intensity, and punishments for falling asleep without saying good night or seeming to slight her at a dinner party can range from hiding his keys to conducting an illicit rendezvous with another man. At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated. I worried that her over-analyzation would’ve become old after a certain point, but each day of the week brought up something new and different, which kept me intrigued up until the very end. It’s a short read. The mounting anticipation was wonderful. The twist was as sour and sweet as a clementine. While I am finishing my coffee, my husband leans toward me and whispers into my ear, ‘We need to find a moment to talk’. Then, after a short pause, he adds, ‘It’s important’.”Fans of Caroline Kepnes' You (2014) or Gillian Flynn will find My Husband to be a new, satisfying, and unnerving take on the relationship-suspense genre." Starred Booklist Living inside this woman’s head was both exhausting and fascinating. Her obsession with her husband, which swings from passion and love to deep revulsion and resentment depending on the day of the week and the color of the day, put me through all the moods. She is utterly fixated and codependent on him and lives to please (and punish) him. Her inner monologue and thought processes about whether her husband loves her, is cheating on her, wants to divorce her, or has discovered her secrets, were almost tipped over the edge into paranoia. For example, she agonizes over his love for their children and friends because spreading his love dilutes his love towards her; she is horrified by his romantic belief of falling more in love daily because it means he doesn’t love her fully at her present. Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him - setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met. What a wonderfully tense, obsessive, enveloping novel - almost like a feminist, introspective spin on Fatal Attraction! Ventura's deftly spun debut is a sharply observed dissection of marriage that will haunt you for days' Virgina Feito

The winner of France's First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies--how well can you really know your spouse?--and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read--compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Irresistible. . . . Thrilling. . . . Ramadan's exacting translation holds the reader in her grip. . . . A bold and memorable first outing.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)This darkly humorous novel of obsession is psychological fiction at its best. I didn’t guess the answer to the original question or the phenomenal twist! He has always admired how rigorously I note the words I need for my translations in my small notebooks. I have a dozen of them. The red notebook is for terms related to politics and societal debates, the blue one is for terms related to nature and the environment. (That one’s been written in the most; in particular it contains the names of climbing plants in English gardens and the different species of oak trees). They are all placed side by side on the shelf above my desk, but today I notice that one of them has disappeared. I look everywhere for my yellow notebook, which contains vocabulary related to medicine and the history of the sciences, in vain. My Husband is an amazing book that captures the essence of a wife's world revolving around her husband. This relatable story delves into the complexities of marriage and the insecurities that can plague a person's mind. Although she has everything the world tells her she should want (a successful husband, two friendly children, a nice house in the suburbs), this wife is not content, but paranoid, because her husband leaving would mean her own end: There is no personality she can hold on to, because she has replaced it by the accumulation of expectations what a wife is supposed to be. Even in her job as an English teacher, she somehow manages to make the assignments relate to her husband, and as a literary translator, she sees herself as a vessel that occupies other writers' voices, thus once more obliterating her own. And at the end of the day, this is not even about loving her husband, as the text points out again and again - and the husband seems to know that, because to love somebody, you have to be somebody. A] wry, psychologically complex debut . . . This riveting emotional thriller requires serious willpower to not devour in a single sitting.”— Oprah Daily