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Sign up todayThe Constant Rabbit
A Novel
Narrator
Andrew Wincott
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Length
12 hours 26 minutes
Language
English
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 . . .
Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film business before debuting on the New York Times bestseller list with The Eyre Affair, the first book in the Thursday Next series. He is also the author of Early Riser and The Constant Rabbit; the Nursery Crime Adventures series; the Shades of Grey series; and the Last Dragonslayer series, adapted for television as a movie. He lives in Wales.
Reviews
"Fforde invokes John le Carré, George Orwell, and Beatrix Potter in this tongue-in-cheek political satire of systemic injustice, bureaucratic corruption, and human foibles. . . . 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."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A political satire cloaked in Fforde’s trademark bizarre whimsy, the novel reads like a crazed cross between Watership Down and Nineteen Eighty-Four."
—Eric Brown, The Guardian
"Wonderfully absurd. . . . Is there anyone who can write satire quite like Fforde? . . . Brilliant. . . . An astonishingly well-crafted work of social and political satire."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"For all its parallels to real-world issues (race, immigration, vegan fundamentalism), The Constant Rabbit feels a bit more Bojack Horseman than Planet of the Apes, and it’s nowhere near as heavy-hoofed as Animal Farm. It’s a dystopia, but a cute one.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"The Constant Rabbit is designed to shake readers out of that complacency: to recognise that merely holding liberal values is not enough to prevent the quickening advance of racism and xenophobia in this country. One must act."
—Financial Times
"A serious minded comedy."
―Mail on Sunday
"Sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality."
―The Times (UK)
"The Constant Rabbit is Jasper Fforde’s most chilling and realistic book yet. . . . Fun and slightly bonkers. . . . Fforde’s love of wordplay, cultural references and silliness shines through in every sentence."
—Elizabeth Flux, The Guardian
"Jasper Fforde’s entertaining, surprisingly thoughtful yet fleet-footed new book—a standalone novel with a climax so dramatic, irrevocable, perfect yet unpredictable that it seems impossible to extend the book to a series—is the comedic master’s foray into this thematic realm. It is, as one might expect, by turns droll and hilarious, poignant and cruel, hopeful and despairing. In other words, a true comedy in depth, a form that is not mere mindless japes and slapstick, but one which counsels us that if we don’t laugh, we must cry."
—Locus
"This standalone novel from the author of the Thursday Next series is set in England, circa 2022, a country filled with over a million walking, talking, literate, car-driving, human-sized rabbits. The humans have gone so far as to vote the Anti-Rabbit Party into power, but their furry neighbors won’t go down without a fight."
—Gizmodo
"Fforde's engaging writing has created a story that is a clever blend of the biting allegorical satire we expect from Orwell's greatest hits and the good-natured adventures of Michael Bond's naïve and kind-hearted Paddington Bear."
―SciFi Now
"Huge fun . . . with all the inventive wordplay, impeccable worldbuilding and fiendish plotting that Fforde's 'Constant Readers' have come to expect."
―SFX
"As he did in Early Riser (2019), Fforde presents a milquetoast cog in an absurdly bureaucratic wheel, this time cleverly skewering Brexit, conservative politics, and white supremacy in this surprisingly uplifting tale of one man doing his best, even if it is the bare minimum."
—Booklist
"Fuelled by Fforde's trademark wit, imagination and brilliantly bizarre world-building. . . . You won't read anything quite like this in 2020—or beyond that too."
—CultureFly
"Wrapped in the author’s trademark sense of wry humor and sarcastic wit."
—Library Journal Expand reviews