Description
Hausfrau is the exceptional debut novel from the prize-winning American poet, Jill Alexander Essbaum. 'The Book that will have everyone talking' Cosmopolitan
Anna Benz, an American in her late-thirties, lives with her Swiss husband, Bruno - a banker - and their three young children, in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zurich.
Though she leads a comfortable life, she is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with Bruno, or even her own feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises her.
But she soon finds that she can't easily extract herself from these relationships. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back . . .
An extraordinary debut literary page-turner with echoes of Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina
About the Author
Jill Alexander Essbaum is the author of several collections of poetry. Her work has twice appeared in The Best American Poetry, as well as its sister anthology, The Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present. A winner of the Bakeless Poetry Prize and recipient of two NEA literature fellowships, Essbaum is a member of the core faculty of the Low Residency MFA at the University of California, Riverside, where she teaches poetry. She lives and writes in Austin, Texas. Hausfrau is her first novel.
Reviews
Haunting . . . Beautifully written, the ennui of its Anna Karenina-esque heroine's deceptively perfect life as a Swiss housewife seeps from every page * Best books of 2015, Harper's Bazaar *
Hausfrau may be the Fifty Shades of literary fiction . . . This debut brilliantly chronicles a woman's
life falling apart . . . The novel's mood is, like Anna's, dreamy and dissociated . . . It is a brilliantly sustained examination of self-induced loneliness and pathological alienation.
It's the book that will have everyone talking . . . * Cosmopolitan *
This slow-burning literary novel of marital disintegration will leave you in bits. It's a bleak, but beautiful read, with echoes of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. * Glamour *
A racy mix of Gone Girl and 50 Shades. * Grazia *
There are echoes in Hausfrau of those other frustrated wives, Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina * Independent on Sunday *
It is that impossible thing: a page-turner about depression. * Observer *
A rare and remarkable debut. * Janet Fitch, bestselling author of White Oleander *
An exceptional debut . . . [with] a heart-stopping climax . . . this portrait of a woman on the edge lingers long in the memory. * The Bookseller *
I read this at a sitting, transfixed by this insightful and shocking portrait of a woman on the edge. -- Fanny Blake * Woman and Home *
2015 is shaping up to be a top year for books. Jill Alexander Essbaum's Hausfrau is a beautiful dissection of a marriage in crisis and a modern-day Anna Karenina tale. * Glamour magazine, Entertainment 2015: The Ultimate Edit *
A book club winner. * Stylist, The Debut Authors to Read in 2015 *
A remarkable, captivating debut. I was hooked from the first line. * Paula Daly *
The Girls-level frankness of the sex scenes set against the cleverly drawn Swiss banality add to the strangely hypnotic reading experience. You'll want to discuss it immediately * The Debrief *
A tense novel about morality, fidelity and identity. * Elle *
A piercingly astute psychological portrait of a woman sleepwalking to self-destruction. * The National *
A powerful, lyrical novel, Hausfrau plumbs the psychology of a lonely, unfaithful housewife and unravels the connections between our words and our deeds. * Huffington Post *
The obvious appeal of the writing is in its clever restraint and artful use of rhythm . . . The reader's attempt to understand the unhappiness of a woman surrounded by the trappings of a successful life paves the way to her character's literary predecessors, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina * Sydney Morning Herald *
Hausfrau has already generated a lot of interest, with comparisons ranging from Gone Girl to Anna Karenina . . . She's somewhat amoral and not particularly likeable, but she is an absolutely fascinating heroine and, still, strangely sympathetic * Emerald Street *
Utterly compelling . . . Her searing honesty ensures the book is both gripping and wonderfully refreshing * Stylist *
This novel had me from the first line: 'Anna was a good wife, mostly.' . . . An intense and chilling portrait of a woman on a mission to self-destruct. -- Fanny Blake * Daily Mail *
A graphic study of adultery, Hausfrau will cause a stir * Sunday Times *
Ruthlessly well-written . . . It is bleak but compelling, all the way to the tragic end * Sunday Times Ireland *
To the steaminess of EL James's erotic classic, it adds the marital dysfunction of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and the commuter neuroses of Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train. There won't be a sun lounger or beach bag without it this summer * Sunday Telegraph *
Looks set to be a summer smash * The Sun *
Book Information
ISBN 9781447280811
Author Jill Alexander Essbaum
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 367g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 127mm * 19mm
