Lucky Bunny
A Novel
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
"Pacy and atmospheric…wickedly good."
—Marie Claire (UK)
"Dawson's heroine is so fresh and spirited that she carries the day."
—Sunday Times (London)
Having already made waves in the United Kingdom, Lucky Bunny has come to America. Acclaimed poet and author Jill Dawson, whose previous novels have been shortlisted for England's Whitbread Award and Orange Prize, now gives us the story of vivacious and endearing thief Queenie Dove, a Moll Flanders for World War II Britain. Brilliantly recreating mid-twentieth century London, from the bustling streets to the seamy underworld, from the Depression Era through the Blitz and into the 1950s, Lucky Bunny entangles readers in the adventurous life of a truly captivating anti-heroine, a self-proclaimed genius in the art of survival. Before the Krays, there was Queenie Dove… and readers will never forget her.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dawson's engaging seventh novel (after Trick of the Light) chronicles the exploits of "Queenie" Dove, a highly intelligent Depression-era child from a family of grifters. As a child in London, Queenie acknowledges her fledgling conscience, but muses, "The world is full of milk on doorsteps. And bread left by the baker's vans, and coal from the coal man." The girl's education begins in earnest at age 12 after a group of established female crooks, who knew Queenie's mum, introduce her to crafty means of attaining what she can't afford. After a short time thieving, during which she changes schools and makes a new friend, she surpasses her felonious teachers, though not without suffering some consequences along the way. But when Queenie discovers that she's pregnant, she begins to examine the life she's built with her violent, criminal boyfriend. Still, the lure of the ruse calls to Queenie even as she imagines the future she will provide for her child. Dawson shows great skill in rendering a fully realized, winning character in this story of a young woman determined to recreate herself after a heartbreaking childhood.
