The Rabbits by Sophie Overett is the winner of the Penguin Literary Prize and the Kathleen Mitchell Award.
Delia Rabbit’s relationship with her own mother became toxic after the disappearance of her older sister, Bo, who was never found. As a consequence, Delia left home at eighteen.
Years later Delia is an art teacher at a Queensland College. Separated from her husband, Ed, she is raising their three children, Olive, Charlie and Benjamin, alone.
Olive, twenty years old, and working at a local supermarket, spends her free time partying hard and experimenting with boys, drink and drugs.
Charlie, at sixteen years, is interested in the universe and how the natural world works. He often wanders off on his own to make fresh discoveries.
Benjamin, aged 11years, is struggling to settle at school and to understand the rift between his parents.
Grandma Rosie Rabbit, a former nurse herself, is now in Saint Anne’s Nursing Home. Delia visits her regularly, but the animosity on her mother’s part is still prevalent.
Delia begins to realise that her life is in turmoil, then Charlie disappears too!
This wonderfully detailed and perceptive novel of the human condition will resonate in particular with teens, who are still trying to find their way through the labyrinth of life, and those of us who are Mothers and Grandmothers.
Whatever the relationship between the generations there’s always a delicate balance between doing right and wrong. Always questioning and second guessing ourselves, we walk this tightrope throughout our lives.
Added to this, the Rabbits’ story is laced with magical, and mildly disturbing superpowers.
Additionally, they face the problems of finding their place in life, true friendship, betrayal and misunderstandings between the generations.
These are three generations of dysfunctional, tortured human beings who discover that others are that way too, to a greater or lesser degree.
A terrific must-read for 2021!
ISBN: 9781761040931
The Rabbits is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook
About Sophie Overett
Sophie Overett is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and cultural producer. Her stories have been published in Griffith Review, Going Down Swinging, Overland, The Sleepers Almanac, and elsewhere. She won the 2018 AAWP Short Story Prize, and her work has been shortlisted for multiple awards, including the Text Prize and the Richell Prize. She’s passionate about storytelling in all of its forms, but particularly stories for the page and the screen. She writes across genres and formats, with a focus on magical realism, literary fiction and horror. The Rabbits, her debut novel, is the winner of the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize, and her first screenplay, All the Little Fishes, has been optioned by Cathartic Pictures. For more information, visit sophieoverett.com.
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