The Constant Rabbit - Moé for Solarpunk Books

320 pages

English language

Published April 16, 2021 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:: 978-1-4447-6364-5

(1 review)

"A new stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Early Riser and the Thursday Next series England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and they like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years before. A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Best Kept Village awards. No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism. But Mrs Constance Rabbit is made of sterner stuff, and her and her family decide they are to stay. Unusually, their neighbors--longtime resident Peter Knox and his daughter, Pippa--decide to stand with them . . …

"A new stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Early Riser and the Thursday Next series England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and they like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years before. A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Best Kept Village awards. No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism. But Mrs Constance Rabbit is made of sterner stuff, and her and her family decide they are to stay. Unusually, their neighbors--longtime resident Peter Knox and his daughter, Pippa--decide to stand with them . . . and soon discover that you can be a friend to rabbits or humans, but not both. With a blossoming romance, acute cultural differences, enforced rehoming to a MegaWarren in Wales, and the full power of the ruling United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party against them, Peter and Pippa are about to question everything they had ever thought about their friends, their nation, and their species. An inimitable blend of satire, fantasy, and thriller, The Constant Rabbit is the latest dazzlingly original foray into Jasper Fforde's ever-astonishing creative genius"--

4 editions

Heather reviewed The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

Review of 'The Constant Rabbit' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I just read Jasper Fforde books. He writes them, I pick them up, and I read them. I don't even read the synopsis. That has never served me so well as it did here. I was overjoyed when a book that starts with synchronized volunteer speed-librarying ends up introducing anthropomorphized rabbits into the mix.Turns out that in the 1960s in England there was an incident. For some reason a few rabbits turned human sized and able to talk. They are also smarter than humans. Humans for the most part didn't like this.This book is a satire of British politics. Take any outsider group in England - Muslim/Polish/Immigrant/Foreigner - and substitute in Giant Rabbit instead. It really points out the absurdity of right wing ideas.

‘Who?’ ‘Them,’ she added, no more helpfully. ‘Vegans?’ ‘No, not vegans,’ she said, eyes opening wide, ‘worse than that.’ ‘Foreigners?’ I asked, catching sight of that …

I just read Jasper Fforde books. He writes them, I pick them up, and I read them. I don't even read the synopsis. That has never served me so well as it did here. I was overjoyed when a book that starts with synchronized volunteer speed-librarying ends up introducing anthropomorphized rabbits into the mix.Turns out that in the 1960s in England there was an incident. For some reason a few rabbits turned human sized and able to talk. They are also smarter than humans. Humans for the most part didn't like this.This book is a satire of British politics. Take any outsider group in England - Muslim/Polish/Immigrant/Foreigner - and substitute in Giant Rabbit instead. It really points out the absurdity of right wing ideas.

‘Who?’ ‘Them,’ she added, no more helpfully. ‘Vegans?’ ‘No, not vegans,’ she said, eyes opening wide, ‘worse than that.’ ‘Foreigners?’ I asked, catching sight of that morning’s copy of The Actual Truth, whose leader column’s outrage du jour was that unwashed foreign beggars were taking much-needed panhandling jobs from their hard-working British counterparts. ‘Worse.’ ‘Vegan foreigners who are also . . . socialist?’ ‘No,’ she said, lowering her voice, ‘rabbits!’

I'm a horrible liberal borderline-vegan person so I found this laugh out loud funny. I was reading the ebook and I have highlighted 23 huge sections.

"It wasn’t just foreigners or rabbits, either: they had an intense dislike for those whom they described as ‘spongers’ – again, a net that could be cast quite broadly but conveniently excluded those on a government pension, taken early – and other groups that they felt were deeply suspect, such as VW Passat drivers: ‘the car of smug lefties’. Added to that was anyone who was vegetarian, or wore sandals, or men with ‘overly vanitised’ facial hair – or women who wore dungarees, spoke loudly and had the outrageous temerity to suggest that their views might be relevant, or worse, correct."

I feel like the story went on a bit too long to sustain the metaphor but I enjoyed the heck out of this book anyway. I absolutely want to live in the world that the rabbits were trying to build.

‘Does vegan stew stir you somewhat in the nether regions, Peter?’ asked Doc. ‘It does us. Big time.’

This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story