In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband—but can their marriage survive her passionate love?
Winner of France’s First Novel Prize • Named a Best Book of the Summer by Vogue • theSkimm • Oprah Daily • The Millions
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, whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.
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, testing him to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.
Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .
“Fans of Caroline Kepnes’ You or Gillian Flynn will find My Husband to be a new, satisfying, and unnerving take on the relationship-suspense genre.” —Booklist (starred review)
Author Info
Maud Ventura lives in Paris. She leads the podcast division of one of France’s major radio stations and speaks fluent English. My Husband is her first novel.
Emma Ramadan (translator) is the recipient of the PEN Translation Prize, the Albertine Prize, an NEA Fellowship, and a Fulbright Scholarship. Her translations include Barbara Molinard’s Panics, Virginie Despentes’s Pretty Things, and Abdellah Taïa’s A Country for Dying. She lives in Brooklyn.
Reviews
“[A] wry, psychologically complex debut . . . This riveting emotional thriller requires serious willpower to not devour in a single sitting.” — Oprah Daily
“Irresistible . . . Thrilling . . . Ramadan's exacting translation holds the reader in her grip . . . A bold and memorable first outing.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Ventura very cleverly explores themes of paranoia, class, and, above all, obsessive love through the couple’s everyday neuroses, building their significance (and their darkness) to keep readers in suspense. The translation by Ramadan adeptly conveys both the setting and the growing tension. 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.” — Booklist (starred review)
“If you obsessively reread (or, let’s be real, rewatched) Gone Girl, then this darkly comic French novel about a woman so deeply besotted with her picture-perfect husband that she goes to some truly crazy lengths to keep him within her clutches is almost sure to resonate with you.” — Vogue
“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.” — Virginia Feito, author of Mrs. March
“Don't miss. Had me weeping with laughter . . . [and] will have you thinking hard about the meaning of love.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“An unsettling novel about the ultimate unknowability of your spouse and a sure-footed addition to a canon that might include Jane Eyre and Gone Girl . . . Gripping reading.” — Sunday Times (London)
“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
“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
“A delicious addition to the relationship-suspense genre.” — The Millions
"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
"As funny as it is fierce . . . An outstanding novel!" — Paris La Douce
“Irresistible and delightful.” — Amelie Nothomb, author of Fear and Trembling
“Reading groups will love to discuss.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Ventura gradually ratchets up the tension, as if she’s stretching a rubber band. What will make it snap?” — New York Times Book Review
