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My Husband: A Novel

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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." On the outside, she is a loving wife, mother, teacher, and translator, but inside….well, she’s something far different.

Ventura's cleverly constructed, one-sided portrait of a marriage delivers a breathtaking conclusion that is as unexpected as it is deviously brilliant.” - Shelf AwarenessThe 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. One of the most daring, provocative, unnervingly intimate thrillers I’ve read in years. It’s a glass of Sancerre, crisp and cold and dry – and the more you swallow, the more you’ll lose your balance. Few writers besides Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith can evoke domestic unease with such sangfroid; fewer still can make it such delirious fun. My Husband is the novel for any woman with a husband. Or perhaps for any man with a wife. Merveilleux, Mademoiselle Ventura!”— A. J. Finn, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Woman in the Window It's a wild read with some inventive prose and turns of phrases that left my Kindle copy absolutely marked up from all the highlighting I was doing. Especially the sex scenes and the descriptions of sex are absolutely unique and profound, and singular to Maud Ventura and the compelling, tension filled voice she created with My Husband. My Husband became a literary sensation when it was published in France in 2021, selling nearly 100,000 copies and winning the Prix du Premier Roman. In translation – and the translation is excellent – it has already been likened to everything from the novels of Patricia Highsmith to Gone Girl to Fatal Attraction. For anglophone readers, there’s an added satisfaction here: the narrator’s erotically charged mind games and her ability to switch between coldness and unbridled sensuality is all so very, well, French. Irresistible. . . . Thrilling. . . . Ramadan's exacting translation holds the reader in her grip. . . . A bold and memorable first outing.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Clearly, it’s not for everyone with a current average rating on Goodreads of 3.74 but, it is UNIQUE and QUITE UNFORGETTABLE so it’s earning 5 stars from me! 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 About the book: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. After all, would a truly infatuated man ever let go of his wife's hand when they're sitting on the couch together? J'ai été séduite d'entrée de jeu par les descriptions de la vie domestique de la narratrice - que voulez-vous, j'adore m'imaginer les maisons des autres, alors une belle maison bourgeoise, une vie de prof d'anglais/traductrice... (ce qui d'ailleurs aurait pu être ma vie si je n'avais pas dévié de cet objectif après mes études) Mais très vite, le malaise arrive : la passion folle, calculée, de la narratrice effraie, plus qu'elle ne donne envie.Today, I've learned to hide it, to pretend, but deep down there is still only one thing capable of getting me out of bed at any hour of the day or night: love. I've never managed to get any other habits.' Even though the book is about a woman obsessed with her husband, it's still weirdly feminist in a sense. She openly laments her all-consuming passion and wishes she were more independent, a trait that she tries to pass on to her daughter. She deliberately left a past lover who loved her more for her husband despite knowing that she's agreeing to a permanent power imbalance because she always loves him more, so in a way, she chose this dynamic and that gives her a bit of power, a bit of agency. She also rectifies the power imbalance by punishing her husband when she feels like he's not showing her enough attention, like denying morning cuddles when he doesn't hold her hand during a movie. Obviously, their relationship is unhealthy af and she desperately needs a therapist to deal with her issues, but it's fascinating to see how she claws power for herself in a skewed dynamic that she purposefully chose. What truly captivated me about this book was the protagonist's strangely appealing internal monologue. It was a quirky and detached style, and it gave me strong neurodivergent vibes. Her thoughts and reflections felt both familiar and unique, and as an unreliable narrator, kept me hooked until the very end.

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