Week 11: The Husbands
AUG. 21, 2024 • CAMP TOB WEEK 11
The Husbands
first half discussion
Summer is drawing to a close—hey, we don’t like saying that any more than you like hearing it!—and that means we’ve also arrived at our final book in this year’s Camp ToB.
This week, we’re discussing the first half, through chapter 23, of Holly Gramazio’s The Husbands, and here to get us started with some discussion questions is the ToB’s very own Rosecrans Baldwin!
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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?
This has been excerpted from the publisher’s summary and edited for length.
1.
Were you able to keep track of the different husbands? Did you have any favorites?
2.
If you had a magic attic, what would you do in Lauren’s shoes?
3.
The author is also a game designer. Do you see an influence in the book? Does the story’s conceptual premise do more to pull you into the story or push you out?
3a.
Not a question exactly, but this is interesting—Gramazio built a husband generator:
The Husband Generator is a little toy that I originally made to help me write my novel The Husbands, a way of thinking about men who might exist and who might climb down from Lauren’s attic. It randomly recombines different hobbies and names and habits to create millions of possible husbands. We figured we’d pop it online so that everyone can have the fun of generating their own.