The Husbands

The Husbands is a work of magical realism by Holly Gramazio in which a thirty-something single woman named Lauren comes home one evening to discover a man she has never met claiming to be her husband inside of her flat. When she realizes that her attic is suddenly magically supplying her with husbands—when one ascends to the attic, a new one descends in his place—Lauren is certain that this will be the opportunity to land the perfect man. In the process, however, she learns that the luxury of such a choice can be a burden and that marriage is an imperfect institution made for imperfect people.

Published in 2024, The Husbands is Gramazio’s debut novel. Originally from Australia and currently residing in England, Gramazio is also a curator and game designer. She explained that the concept for the book came out of watching a friend use dating apps and growing frustrated with the emotional toll the experience took (Nicolaou, Elena. “Jenna Bush Hager Says Her April 2024 Book Club Pick Is ‘Equal Parts Humor and Love Story.’” Today, 2 Apr. 2024). In an interview, Gramazio notes that she has always been fascinated by the concept of alternate lives, explaining that her own career as a game designer was one she stumbled into accidentally after discovering a book on game design misplaced amid the poetry section at a bookstore (Gbogbo, Mawunyo. “The Husbands Author Holly Gramazio Would Have Swiped Left on Her Husband if She’d Encountered Him Online.” ABC News, 3 Apr. 2024). Gramazio is the founder of Now Play This, a gaming festival. She co-authored a book on gaming for MIT Press and was awarded the IndieCade Grand Jury Award.

This guide references the 2024 hardcover by Doubleday.

Plot Summary

Lauren returns to her London flat one night after attending her best friend’s bachelorette party to find a strange man inside. The man, however, seems to know her and tries to calm her down as she panics and rushes outside. She looks at her phone and finds pictures of the man—named Michael—and she also discovers that she is wearing a wedding ring. Certain that Lauren must have had too much to drink and is therefore not feeling well, Michael makes her a bed on the living room sofa.

When Michael is still present in the morning, Lauren tries to make sense of what is happening. It appears she is married though she has no memory of a wedding and has never met Michael. Later, when Michael heads to the attic to replace a light bulb, another man descends in his place. Lauren realizes that her attic is suddenly supplying her with husbands: Each time the current husband ascends the ladder and enters the attic, a new husband appears in his place. All the men are strangers to Lauren, but with each new husband, her cellular phone bears proof that they are indeed married. If Lauren finds one of the husbands displeasing for any reason, she merely makes an excuse to cause him to ascend to the attic and receives a replacement husband. With each swap, aspects of her apartment or possessions are altered.

Lauren cycles through the husbands—each time, inventing the excuse of a cold to avoid sharing a bed with a stranger—before settling on Jason, a gardener whom she learns her mother and sister are fond of.

While Jason is out, Lauren explores the attic, discovering that anything requiring electricity behaves strangely when she enters. She presumes this is somehow related to the appearance and disappearance of husbands. She tries to explain the husband phenomena to both her sister and her friend Elena, but neither regards her concerns seriously. As Elena’s wedding approaches, Lauren decides that Jason—with his open mouth chewing—is not a suitable date and sends him back.

She cycles through a handful of husbands swiftly—rejecting each either for an intolerable habit or an aspect of her life that has been altered due to the circumstances each new husband brings with him. Finally, she settles on an American named Carter who seems suitable to take to Elena’s wedding (and an impressive date to be seen with in front of Lauren’s ex, Amos). In the days leading up to the wedding, Lauren begins to develop genuine feelings for Carter. Excited that he may be the one to keep permanently, she proceeds slowly and takes her time getting to know him.

The wedding goes well and Lauren enjoys Carter’s company. However, after they return home, Carter accidentally enters the attic in search of their misplaced wedding album. Devastated, Lauren rejects the next 15 husbands in quick succession, fearful none of them will measure up to Carter. Exhausted, she finally gives up and settles on one named Felix, who tells her they are driving to the country and that she should prepare her flat. She realizes that she and Felix, a wealthy CFO, reside in a large mansion outside of the city and that her flat has become an Airbnb. She finds Felix polite but formal. The extravagant house, complete with an indoor pool and an expansive conservatory garden, convinces Lauren to stick with him for a while so that she can treat her new life—in which she does not have a job—as a vacation.

Lauren spends her days wandering the large house, luxuriating in the pool, and drinking coffee in the conservatory until one day the gardener appears: It is Jason, her previous husband. Surprised to discover that the husbands go on to live parallel lives outside of her upon her rejection of them, Lauren looks up Carter. She discovers he is living in the United States and appears to have a steady girlfriend. This begins a habit of tracking Carter with each subsequent “reset” of Lauren’s life.

After Lauren learns that Felix is guilty of some unsavory business practices, she prepares to send him back to the attic. This proves more challenging than usual, since they do not reside in her flat. However, by threatening to expose his financial misdeeds, Lauren finally rids herself of Felix, returning to a life of receiving and rejecting new husbands every few days or so.

One evening, she settles in to watch TV with a new husband named Bohai. Lauren is again mentally spent by the process of navigating a new husband and a new life every few days and decides she will settle for him for the time being. When Bohai says he needs to retrieve something from the attic, Lauren fights with him. In the struggle, Bohai reveals he has had more than 400 spouses. He reveals to Lauren that he too is stuck in the magical world in which spouses appear. The difference, however, is that Bohai is the one who comes and goes, each time appearing in a new home with a new spouse.

Relieved to have found someone who can relate to their strange circumstance, Bohai and Lauren agree to live together companionably for a while. They trade stories of good and bad spouses and discuss their respective criteria for their ideal mates. They go about their lives as normal, socializing with their separate friends and working their respective jobs. In time, a friendship develops and they agree they will attempt to remain in contact after Bohai leaves. Lauren agrees to allow him to stay until the end of the year.

After Bohai ascends the attic ladder on New Year’s Day, Lauren settles back into a pattern of switching out husbands and tracking Carter in the United States. She pines for the closeness they shared and wonders if there is a way to get him back. One day Lauren receives a new husband who turns out to be her real-life ex, Amos. Lauren prepares to send him back but realizes that Amos is in the process of packing his things. They are, it appears, undergoing a divorce. Realizing that she may be able to drag the divorce out and use the time as a break from the husband cycle, Lauren decides to keep Amos for the time being.

During that time, Lauren dates for the first time in nearly a year. With the help of friends, she registers on dating apps, confident that, having had the experience of so many partners, she will be able to find true love swiftly and effortlessly. Dating, however, proves just as taxing as marriage. Lauren finds it difficult to quelch her newly acquired habit of rejecting dates swiftly, often based on superficial qualities she deems intolerable. One day a friend suggests Lauren take a trip with her as a break from daily life. This sparks an idea: Lauren will go to Colorado and meet Carter.

Through research, she has learned that Carter is a real estate agent in Denver. Lauren contacts him by email, explaining that she plans to relocate and would like to view properties in the city. A meeting with Carter is scheduled and Lauren books a flight, hoping that meeting her will rekindle the spark Carter once felt for her. The trip, however, does not go as planned and Carter rejects Lauren’s advances, directly telling her he has no interest in dating her. She returns to England, ready to quit dating for good. To do this, she must get rid of Amos.

Determined to coax Amos back into her attic so that she can reset her life, Lauren makes plans with him under the guise of signing divorce papers. When Amos refuses to meet at her flat, however, she must resort to other means to bring him there. Lauren drugs his coffee and when his stomach becomes upset, she convinces him to return to the flat to lie down. It is then that she is finally able to get him to enter the attic.

After the rejection by Carter, Lauren returns even more frustrated with the attic than before. Her new husband, Zach, arrives with a thud, having fallen from the attic ladder on his descent. When it turns out he has injured himself and needs surgery and hospitalization, Lauren finds herself stuck with Zach for weeks. When he is finally once again mobile, Zach is skittish of the attic, refusing to reenter it after his fall. Lauren tries every excuse she can think of to coax him there but he is adamant that he is not ready to endure such trauma.

Lauren, deciding she must resort to extremes, travels to Felix’s country home where she enters using the door code. She retrieves his son’s air gun, hiding it in a badminton racket bag on the train ride back. She threatens Zach with the gun and—after a skirmish ensues that involves her neighbor, Toby—finally rids herself of him.

Lauren decides that she is done with the attic once and for all. She exits her flat before she can catch a glimpse of the next husband. From a bar, she contacts him—after learning his name is Sam—via text, sending him on an errand. When Sam is safely out of the flat, Lauren enters the attic. The strange electrical shorts begin to occur and Lauren remains there until the lightbulbs spark, then burst, catching the attic on fire and burning the flat completely.

The final chapter switches to Sam’s point of view. He returns from the errand to find Lauren on the sidewalk with their passports and important papers as well as a few mementos from her time with the series of husbands. Relieved she is okay, Sam assures her he would rather be possession-less and married to her than the reverse.