Hausfrau - Jill Alexander Essbaum

Title: Hausfrau
Author: Jill Alexander Essbaum
Pages: 324
Published: 2015
Genre: Literary fiction
Edition: Hardcover
Source: Library

Description: 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. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: This was another book that I felt that the writing was strong where the main character was unlikable.  I felt that Anna was really unlikable and that many of the decisions that she made where very selfish and not willing to make her marriage work or seek out more women who are in a similar predicament as she did end up doing.

That being said, Essbaum's writing was excellent, drawing the reader into Anna's mind and the conundrum that Anna gets herself into and leaving the ending to the reader's imagination.

Bottom line: Despite Anna's self-destructive behaviour in the book, I found the book to be an enjoyable read.  Highly recommended.

Rating: 4/5