“Reads like a crazed cross between Watership Down and Nineteen Eighty-Four.”–The Guardian“Every book of Fforde’s seems to be a cause for celebration.” — Charles Yu, The New York Times Book Review on Early RiserA new stand-alone novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Early Riser and the Thursday Next seriesEngland, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. … series
England, 2022.
There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK.
They wear clothes and 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 in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Spick & Span awards for the best-kept village.
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 she 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 to 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.
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This book is an, at times depressingly all-too-true, satire of the current state of Britain. It shines a laser-sharp spotlight on issues such as racism, Brexit-style arrogance, and more while managing to elicit a smile and a laugh on a regular basis. Superb storytelling, and a bittersweet ending. Loved it.
Silly and really funny
I would have liked this bit as ‘Introduction’, just to understand quicker what was/did/going to occur:
On 12 August 1965 there had been an unexpected flurry of snow on the night of a full moon following the warmest of summer days, when the sunset glowed an eerie shade of green. Aluminium foil had inexplicably tarnished within ten miles of the Event, and glass had adopted a sheen like that of mineral oil on
water.The eighteen rabbits of the Event morphed and grew into a semi-humanlike shape overnight, stretched, yawned – then asked for a glass of water and a carrot, adding: ‘But really, only if it’s no trouble.’
An incredibly detailed story, told in the realistic manner of an actual observer. I can well believe that if a group of animals could suddenly interact with humans in the same way humans do, there really would be a government department or two quickly set up ruin things. There would be pressure groups fighting for the animals ‘human’ rights and opposing groups would be there doing their utmost to eradicate the thinking talking animals. The author writes about impossible things in a way that sounds entirely plausible, with plenty of humour, you just have to pay attention to see the many ways he pokes fun at, well, us. Especially all those people who hate anything and anyone different to themselves. I chuckled at bits like :a small herd of Friesians, who looked as though they’d suddenly realised that it was a Tuesday and would have to reconfigure their plans.
Although it worked, I was ever so slightly dissatisfied with the end, I just wanted the two main characters to get, well, more. They deserved to! A funny book, by an intelligent author, with plot twists that were impossible to predict
You open this book and you find yourself in a world that is bizarrely familiar yet utterly outlandish. It feels like the second coming of Animal Farm. Animals (particularly rabbits) are on a collision course with humans, and if you have a shred of humanity in you, you are on the side of the rabbit.
Fforde’s portrayal of our twenty-first century society is spot on. You recognise the characters, the events and the trends: UKARP, a right-wing party led by a PM going by the name of Nigel Smethwick, a TwoLegsGood movement of middle-class reactionaries, the entrenched perceptions of an “unbridled” rabbit infestation/invasion on the green shores of Britain. We are talking rabbits, the little furry animals native to these isles. They were here before us. They fully anthropomorphised in 1965 and continued to multiply in their usual rampant way. The more they started resembling humans the less acceptable and more inconvenient they became. They had to be separated from humans and ghettoised in a new MegaWarren in the depths of Wales.
This story is hilarious. The world Fforde has created (and based on our very reality) is astounding in its every detail, and it is funny because it is so relatable. There is pure observational comedy there that will leave you with a laugh-out-loud bellyache. But this story also hits a nerve. It is a satire about the decline of our society, the loss of what once was a clear moral compass but has now become a murky moral muddle, about the unrestrained rampage of bigotry and intolerance. And about good people caught in the middle of it, scared, suppressed, but hopefully still trying to do what’s right.
I loved this book.
Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde a real thinker of a five-star read. This one has had my brain in a twist, it makes you think about how you have behaved in the past, as always with Jasper Fforde it’s a twisted and complex story with the craziest elements possible, but its underneath just a great story, it’s like being a tiny child and being told this amazing story from an eccentric relative. I would normally see this as being about politics and ignore it, as I don’t enjoy reading political story’s as they only ever give you one side of the story, but Jasper Ffore made it about so much more, there is a series message underlying this story, but there is a light-heartedness and quirkiness that will make you chuckle as you read, meaning you don’t realise that your mind is being opened as you take it all in. I really hope that everyone reads this, I know lots wont, but I do know I will be buying several copies for people I know as they could do with their minds opening.