The Constant Rabbit
A Novel
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- ¥1,400
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series comes “a political satire cloaked in Fforde’s trademark bizarre whimsy . . . [that] reads like a crazed cross between Watership Down and Nineteen Eighty-Four” (The Guardian).
“Playful, biting, and timely, this is a must-read.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK.
They can walk, talk, and drive cars, the result of an inexplicable Spontaneous Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years earlier.
A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Spick & Span awards for the best-kept village.
Citing imaginary threats of overbreeding and a radical vegan agenda, the villagers decide the rabbits must go, and soon. But the Rabbit family aren’t easily moved—and strike up an unlikely alliance with neighbor Peter Knox, who knew Mrs. Rabbit three decades earlier at university.
With the ruling United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party’s plans to forcibly rehome all rabbits to Wales, Peter finds himself drawn deeper into the Rabbit Way, and is about to question everything he has ever thought about his friends, his nation, and his species.
Sometimes, it’ll take a rabbit to teach a human about humanity . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fforde (Early Riser) invokes John le Carr , George Orwell, and Beatrix Potter in this tongue-in-cheek political satire of systemic injustice, bureaucratic corruption, and human foibles. Peter Knox, one of the rare humans who can differentiate between individual humanoid rabbits created in the Spontaneous Anthropomorphising Event of 1965, works as a spotter in the English village of Much Hemlock. In this role, Peter secretly identifies rabbits for the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party's Rabbit Compliance Taskforce. But when Peter's university crush, Connie, a rabbit herself, moves in next door right when the Taskforce is cooking up a plan to rehome the rabbits in a work camp, Peter falls into a tangled web of seduction, espionage, and betrayal as he's torn between his career and a chance to do the right thing. Amid a rapid-fire barrage of literary allusions, Fforde displays his signature quick wit on a furious tour through modern British right-wing politics. Playful, biting, and timely, this is a must-read.
