
Hausfrau
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Mozhan Marnò
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, THE HUFFINGTON POST, AND SHELF AWARENESS • “In Hausfrau, Anna Karenina goes Fifty Shades with a side of Madame Bovary.”—Time
“A debut novel about Anna, a bored housewife who, like her Tolstoyan namesake, throws herself into a psychosexual journey of self-discovery and tragedy.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Sexy and insightful, this gorgeously written novel opens a window into one woman’s desperate soul.”—People
Anna was a good wife, mostly. For listeners of The Girl on the Train and The Woman Upstairs comes a striking debut novel of marriage, fidelity, sex, and morality, featuring a fascinating heroine who struggles to live a life with meaning.
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 Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and 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 even her.
But Anna can’t easily extract herself from these affairs. When she wants to end them, she finds it’s difficult. Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there is no going back.
Intimate, intense, and written with the precision of a Swiss Army knife, Jill Alexander Essbaum’s debut novel is an unforgettable story of marriage, fidelity, sex, morality, and most especially self. Navigating the lines between lust and love, guilt and shame, excuses and reasons, Anna Benz is an electrifying heroine whose passions and choices listeners will debate with recognition and fury. Her story reveals, with honesty and great beauty, how we create ourselves and how we lose ourselves and the sometimes disastrous choices we make to find ourselves.
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Critic reviews
“In Hausfrau, Anna Karenina goes Fifty Shades with a side of Madame Bovary.”—Time
“A debut novel about Anna, a bored housewife who, like her Tolstoyan namesake, throws herself into a psychosexual journey of self-discovery and tragedy.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Sexy and insightful, this gorgeously written novel opens a window into one woman’s desperate soul.”—People
First of all the narration is excellent, I have never heard this narrator before but I will look for other readings by her immediately.
Second, the book itself is a fascinating view of a person living in a foreign country. She faces enormous challenges integrating herself into a foreign society, which with I sympathized. Anna does not resolve these issues in time to save herself, but we get to enjoy her intelligent and pointed commentary about the Swiss language and the culture as we watch her struggle. As a person who has lived in another country prior to mastering its language I really found that aspect of the book to be quite engaging and a good reflection of the feelings I knew myself as an outsider sometimes ambivalent about my new 'home'.
Third, the character of Anna is very frustrating, but I saw the book as more of a meditation on Anna Karenina than as a character portrait of a real person. I thought it was fascinating to follow the author through the exploration of how a modern woman could end up in the same situation as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I don't think I liked the character of Anna in Hausfrau, or some of the other characters but that did not prevent enjoying the book and its examination of their dilemmas.
There were issues that bothered me in the writing, such as the continued obsession with images of fire which didn't seem to lead anywhere, and I thought the ending was a bit prolonged, but nothing I felt while reading this book can relate to the very negative reactions other listeners describe. I enjoyed this audiobook quite a lot and found it very intelligent.
I hope that readers will give the book a chance - I wasn't able to read a book for months because nothing felt right, and once I listened to a sample of Hausfrau I had to buy it right away and read it straight through in only a few days during limited commuting hours. The narrator adds quite a lot to the experience and does wonderful accents and very expressive reading. The prose is also very beautiful and clever. I think the author is very promising and I look forward to reading more of her work.
A well-narrated book which surprised me
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I have heard this described as a "modern day Madame Bovary", and I think that's a good way to explain it.
I will say I was a little surprised at how much sex there was in the book, and how explicit it was! This didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book, but it lead to some awkward blushing, since I often listen to books on my headphones while working and commuting. If you have a problem with explicit sex and morally ambiguous characters, this may not be the book for you.
Four out of five
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intriguing
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Depressing read
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Anna was unable to make any friend's, that had not changed. Bruno's mother lived very close, within walking distance, and was with Anna quite often. Bruno's mother did not like Anna nor did Anna care for her MIL. Anna was still unable to make friends.
Anna had finally found herself and happiness. However, when this illicit affair was over Anna, was further back than where she had started from. Now that Anna understood just what she had been missing, she was miserable.
Anna had three children, Victor, Charles and Polly. Victor was like Bruno in looks as well as actions. Charles was carefree and in love with life. Polly was a happy go lucky child, who fit in with everyone and everything. Anna knew now that marriage was not helping her to find her true self because she had found and lost it. My understanding was that she cared for her children but I don't think that she knew if she loved them. Bruno insisted that Anna visit a psychiatrist to help her, as well as everyone else who lived with her, with her moodiness, depression and inability to show love.
Anna was seeing her psychiatrist, who suggested that she try to find an activity where other adults were involved. Who knew, Anna may connect with someone and find a friend.
The book was well written and I knew Anna very well. The other character's were also well developed.The narrator gave life to the character's. I listened to the book in short bursts because, as other reviewers have noted, Anna was depression, in its true form. However, Anna was living a life, that I'm sure statistics would prove that many people, men and women alike, live. Maybe reading this book, we are able to attribute some of Anna's life into our own. Surely, not all people. This book could teach you, if you were interested, all about depression in one of its life forms. Anna exhibits one kind of depression, not all the different forms of depression that exist. There were short periods of happiness in the book but not many. I can't say that I enjoyed the book but I liked the book because of Anna. She wanted what everyone wants, happiness, whatever you yourself consider to be happiness. One person's happiness is not someone else's happiness.
Trying to Learn What Self Is
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The train wreck of a woman unable to trust those most able to help her.
A tragedy seen from 100 yards
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Incredibly depressing
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Brilliant character study
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What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
I found this womans worries so exhausting yet so humane. Her confindence is crushed and she really doesn't know what to do with her life. If I were in her shoes I feel I most likely will be as desperate as she is.What about Mozhan Marno’s performance did you like?
Perfect, as always.I really enjoy it
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quite the story
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