Precipitate

Parisienne Maud Ventura started writing her novel My Husband at 25, after she fell madly in love and moved in with her boyfriend. Three years later, she says, “he dumped me and I finished the book.” Published as Mon Mari by the indie press L’Iconoclaste in 2021, the book went on to sell 90,000 copies in France.

In My Husband, Ventura addresses questions precipitated by romantic love: Can it last? Why does it change over time? Can you love too much? She explores emotional dependence, maternal love, and vulnerability in the first-person narrative of an unnamed 40-year-old Frenchwoman. The heroine “has it all”: beauty, affluence, a successful 13-year marriage, and two children—but she obsesses over her husband (“The idea that my husband existed before meeting me is surreal, even revolting”) and is wildly insecure in her marriage.