Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz Williams
New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads—her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory’s forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother’s adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams— one of the world’s most beloved singer-songwriters—a fairy tale cut short by a devastating betrayal.
Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself—marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah’s longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men . . . and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.
Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands & Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England. Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues—of privilege, class, and the female experience—inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life.
Review: Told in dual narratives, this book follows Mallory, a single mother in present day New England, and Hannah Ainsworth, a Hungarian refugee in Cairo in 1951. Mallory is devastated when her son ends up in kidney failure. The search for a donor is complicated by the fact that her mother was adopted from an Irish orphanage in the 1950s and because Mallory never told the father of her child about her son's existence. In 1951, Hanna is involved in a passionate affair with her husband's tacit approval and hoping to conceive a child with the man she is truly in love with.
It has been years since I read a novel be Beatriz Williams! I always enjoy her books and appreciate how unique her storylines are. Some of the plot choices in this one seemed a bit far-fetched. Mallory's son is in kidney failure because he was dared to eat a poisonous mushroom while away at camp, an act that nearly killed him. And the father of her child, is now a very famous singer and songwriter. I always find storylines where the woman doesn't tell the man about his child a bit difficult to believe, but I will say that Williams built in a shocking twist to help explain why Mallory left a man she was deeply in love with and never looked back. There are also lots of crazy things thrown in the story, such as Monk's fiancée, who is a lifestyle influencer of the very fake variety. I couldn't help but feel deeply sad for Monk, Mallory, and their son, who missed out on so many years together.
As with most dual narrative novels, I did feel more connected to one storyline over the over. Hannah's chapters felt far less fleshed out. We learn she lost her family in the war, which is why she is so desperate to have another child. But it's unclear why she married the man she did, why he is ok with her sleeping with other men, and why she doesn't just leave him for an actual love - other than her ptsd over previous losses. Ultimately, Hannah does not have a very happy ending. While her story was ultimately linked back to Mallory's story, it just felt unnecessary. I truly think Mallory's storyline could stand alone and was more than enough of a plot to fill the book.
Also, just a note to say that I had to listen to this audiobook much faster than I would have liked, but only because I was desperate to finish it before my library hold expired! I wish I could have taken more time to savor it. Reading this was a great reminder of how enjoyable I find Beatriz William's novels and I need to make time to read more of hers.
Stars: 4
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