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Hop into Spring: 9 Bunny Books
Rabbit symbolism runs riot in these titles from writers like Mona Awad, Samantha Irby and Nadine Sander-Green / BY Nathalie Atkinson / March 21st, 2024
Bunnies have been having a good run in titles and as thematic devices of late, so they offer a fitting motif for the Easter season. The rabbit, a symbol of feminine power, arguably has connections to creativity, resistance and survival that make it timely, such that it gets a nod even when it’s not a large part of the story. In Tess Gunty’s National Book Award-winning The Rabbit Hutch, for instance, the title refers to the shabby affordable housing complex where the main character experiences transformation. In Lewis Carroll’s famously absurd world, the White Rabbit figure leads Alice on a journey into fantasy and escape through the titular Wonderland. One way or another, recent and notable books do the same.
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1Rabbit Rabbit RabbitThe Calgary-based, B.C.-raised author’s debut literary novel explores a woman’s identity and coming of age in a toxic relationship. The novel follows the dysfunctional relationship between Millicent, 24, a young reporter who has relocated to Whitehorse to work at the local newspaper, and the middle-aged filmmaker she meets there, set against the stark isolation of the landscape and her struggle to regain her sense of self. (April 16)
The Calgary-based, B.C.-raised author’s debut literary novel explores a woman’s identity and coming of age in a toxic relationship. The novel follows the dysfunctional relationship between Millicent, 24, a young reporter who has relocated to Whitehorse to work at the local newspaper, and the middle-aged filmmaker she meets there, set against the stark isolation of the landscape and her struggle to regain her sense of self. (April 16)
2The White HareOnly child Janey believes her plush toy Rabbit has magical powers, and that belief sets the tone for this tale of remote 1954 Cornwall, where Janey, her mother and grandmother have recently moved into a dilapidated house on the coast that they plan to restore. The 2022 gothic novel is rife with folkloric atmosphere as they discover the secrets both within the family and about the ancient mysteries of the area.
Only child Janey believes her plush toy Rabbit has magical powers, and that belief sets the tone for this tale of remote 1954 Cornwall, where Janey, her mother and grandmother have recently moved into a dilapidated house on the coast that they plan to restore. The 2022 gothic novel is rife with folkloric atmosphere as they discover the secrets both within the family and about the ancient mysteries of the area.
3Catch the RabbitSara, who grew up in the former Yugoslavia but is now living in Dublin, narrates this picaresque road trip after it has come to an end. She was recently summoned back to the country – and the pain she left behind – by her childhood best friend, who needs help tracking her brother, who disappeared at the beginning of the Bosnian War years earlier. Balkan history provides the backdrop to this exploration of an uneasy rekindled friendship (a tragicomedy structured around the chapters of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and won the Bosnian author (who did her own translation into English) the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature.
Sara, who grew up in the former Yugoslavia but is now living in Dublin, narrates this picaresque road trip after it has come to an end. She was recently summoned back to the country – and the pain she left behind – by her childhood best friend, who needs help tracking her brother, who disappeared at the beginning of the Bosnian War years earlier. Balkan history provides the backdrop to this exploration of an uneasy rekindled friendship (a tragicomedy structured around the chapters of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and won the Bosnian author (who did her own translation into English) the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature.
4BunnyThe New England college setting, and the outsider navigating sinister goings-on, recalls Donna Tartt’s landmark The Secret History, but this 2019 hallucinatory novel is a far more peculiar creature. The silhouetted rabbit on the cover is a reference to the way the rich girls of the cultish (literally!) clique call one another Bunny – with an outcome more like if the black-hearted, gen-X comedy Heathers went the way of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. No wonder BookTok went wild for it; watch for the movie soon.
The New England college setting, and the outsider navigating sinister goings-on, recalls Donna Tartt’s landmark The Secret History, but this 2019 hallucinatory novel is a far more peculiar creature. The silhouetted rabbit on the cover is a reference to the way the rich girls of the cultish (literally!) clique call one another Bunny – with an outcome more like if the black-hearted, gen-X comedy Heathers went the way of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. No wonder BookTok went wild for it; watch for the movie soon.
5Rabbits for FoodThis engrossing bestseller from 2019 chronicles the breakdown of the lead character, Bunny, into institutionalization, beginning on New Year’s Eve. In the psych ward, she refuses treatment and instead chronicles the goings-on around her and somehow writes her way out of it. Over the course of the story, the author – a creative writing professor in New York City – manages to make the harrowing descent into clinical depression hilarious.
This engrossing bestseller from 2019 chronicles the breakdown of the lead character, Bunny, into institutionalization, beginning on New Year’s Eve. In the psych ward, she refuses treatment and instead chronicles the goings-on around her and somehow writes her way out of it. Over the course of the story, the author – a creative writing professor in New York City – manages to make the harrowing descent into clinical depression hilarious.
6Mrs Death Misses Death“It comes from a place of grieving,” is how Godden, a British poet of Jamaican-Irish heritage, explains the genesis of her buzzy 2021 debut. “I was mourning, in a very dark place and looking for the light.” This original concept mixes poetry, prose – even non-fiction – and death is personified as an elderly Black woman who takes various forms. Exhausted by the senseless dying around her, Mrs Death unburdens herself by dictating stories about her work to a young working-class poet named Wolf (hence the rabbit and wolf illustration on the cover). Actor Idris Elba has optioned adaptation rights.
“It comes from a place of grieving,” is how Godden, a British poet of Jamaican-Irish heritage, explains the genesis of her buzzy 2021 debut. “I was mourning, in a very dark place and looking for the light.” This original concept mixes poetry, prose – even non-fiction – and death is personified as an elderly Black woman who takes various forms. Exhausted by the senseless dying around her, Mrs Death unburdens herself by dictating stories about her work to a young working-class poet named Wolf (hence the rabbit and wolf illustration on the cover). Actor Idris Elba has optioned adaptation rights.
7Rabbit HoleThe title of this new psychological page-turner, published in January, is about falling down obsessive spirals — the same way these wily animals make tunnels, and the way we often single-mindedly obsess about minor ideas. The story will resonate: a woman named Teddy alienates family and colleagues by disappearing into Reddit threads as she investigates her sister’s unsolved disappearance and its links to her father’s suicide.
The title of this new psychological page-turner, published in January, is about falling down obsessive spirals — the same way these wily animals make tunnels, and the way we often single-mindedly obsess about minor ideas. The story will resonate: a woman named Teddy alienates family and colleagues by disappearing into Reddit threads as she investigates her sister’s unsolved disappearance and its links to her father’s suicide.
8The Hare with Amber EyesThe family memoir by celebrated British ceramicist Edmund de Waal traces the journey of the hare netsuke, a tiny circa-1880 Japanese ivory figurine he inherited from his influential European Jewish banking-dynasty family, through Odessa, Vienna and Paris. Published to global acclaim in 2010, the book was a phenomenon and, in 2021, became an interpretive art exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum, examining the lives of his renowned Ephrussis ancestors through objects and ephemera.
The family memoir by celebrated British ceramicist Edmund de Waal traces the journey of the hare netsuke, a tiny circa-1880 Japanese ivory figurine he inherited from his influential European Jewish banking-dynasty family, through Odessa, Vienna and Paris. Published to global acclaim in 2010, the book was a phenomenon and, in 2021, became an interpretive art exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum, examining the lives of his renowned Ephrussis ancestors through objects and ephemera.
9Wow, No Thank YouBefore giving us another helping of outrageously funny and observant essays in Quietly Hostile, the comedian picked apart the absurdities of 21st-century living in this 2020 collection of LAMBDA Literary Award-winning entries about lust and life in small-town midwestern America, with white stepchildren, chronic illness, aging and parenting. Trust that the grumpy-looking bunny on the cover captures the tone.
Before giving us another helping of outrageously funny and observant essays in Quietly Hostile, the comedian picked apart the absurdities of 21st-century living in this 2020 collection of LAMBDA Literary Award-winning entries about lust and life in small-town midwestern America, with white stepchildren, chronic illness, aging and parenting. Trust that the grumpy-looking bunny on the cover captures the tone.