Clever, snappy, fun, and occasionally sharp, Calgary-based writer Elizabeth Haynes’s first novel takes the reader on a mysterious travelogue through Cuba, marriage, and memory.

The Errant Husband begins as its protagonist, Thelma, arrives at an airport in Cuba to meet her husband, only to find that he isn’t there and has checked out of their hotel. With only a note promising he’ll be back in three days and an enigmatic line from a poem as clues to his whereabouts, Thelma is left to explore Havana, haunted by questions about where her husband has gone and thoughts of her past. 

The book’s characters are well-observed, if a little familiar. There’s Thelma, whose domestic bliss has softened into something more comfortable, just as her ambitions to become an archaeologist were supplanted by a well-paying and not-too-difficult job in Calgary city planning. There’s Wally, the husband, a writer with frustrated ambitions who keeps the house clean and cooks delicious dinners as a trade-off for staying home to work on his art. When Rosa—a talented Cuban writer—joins his writing group, his ambitions suddenly include a research trip to Cuba, and Thelma is put on edge. 

When the narrative digs deeper into Thelma’s past, the book comes most alive. A miscarriage from early in her relationship with Wally is revealed to be a turning point in her past that still haunts her, and meditations on her lingering grief are poignantly captured. When Thelma, in search of Wally, begins travelling the Cuban countryside with a fellow Canadian tourist and two local cab drivers, the narrative gains momentum and a sense of play.

What really shines in the book is the author’s close attention to the tensions, pressures, and sacrifices that women face as they move through married life. In its close examination of the central characters’ relationship, the book also probes the consequences of doing nothing, letting things calcify—a theme that emerges powerfully through a twist near the end of the novel. 

The author’s background in travel writing is clear in the vivid descriptions of Thelma’s Cuban journey, and the book is woven throughout with historical and literary allusions. Drawn in by the mystery of Wally’s disappearance, the reader will find themselves puzzling to instead solve the mystery of Thelma’s past, of a marriage touched by secrets, and of what it means to keep a relationship alive.