Tess Gunty

A Novel

Rabbit Hutch

A stunning debut novel about the quest for transcendence and the desire for love set in a crumbling apartment building in the post-industrial Midwest Once a bustling industrial center, Vacca Vale, Indiana is now no more than another notch in the Rust Belt, and its inhabitants are no exception. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, a number of these people, those left behind, now reside quietly out-of-place. Apartment C2 is lonely and detached. C6 is aging and stuck. C8 harbors an extraordinary fear. But C4 is of particular interest. Here live four teenagers who have recently aged out of the state foster care system: three teenage boys and one girl, Blandine. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine is plagued by her past and by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her, but actively harmed her. Now, all that Blandine wants is an escape, true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads. In The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty has written a gorgeous and provocative tale of searching and longing and of pain and healing. Hers is a voice bristling with intelligence and vulnerability.

A novel

The Rabbit Hutch

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • The standout literary debut that everyone is talking about • "Inventive, heartbreaking and acutely funny."—The Guardian A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME, NPR, Oprah Daily, People Blandine isn't like the other residents of her building. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom. "Gunty writes with a keen, sensitive eye about all manner of intimacies―the kind we build with other people, and the kind we cultivate around ourselves and our tenuous, private aspirations."—Raven Leilani, author of Luster

'Profoundly wise, wildly inventive' Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated A bitingly funny, razor-sharp debut about a motley assortment of residents in a crumbling apartment block. Welcome to The Rabbit Hutch. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents. Separated by the thin walls of The Rabbit Hutch, a low-cost housing complex in the run-down Indiana town of Vacca Vale, these individual lives unfold. But Blandine isn't like the other residents of her building. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, she spends her hours reading Dante and dreaming about becoming a female mystic. Until, that is, three sweltering days in July culminate in an act of violence that will change everything, and finally offer her a chance to escape. Savage and hilarious, The Rabbit Hutch is a piercing look at the power structures that shape us, and the tale of a young woman with irrepressible strength. 'Gunty writes with a keen, sensitive eye about all manner of intimacies—the kind we build with other people, and the kind we cultivate around ourselves and our tenuous, private aspirations.' Raven Leilani, author of Luster

Tess Gunty ist die jüngste Preisträgerin des National Book Award seit Philipp Roth und das größte Talent der amerikanischen Literaturgeschichte seit David Foster Wallace. »Der Kaninchenstall« verspricht eine solch intensive Lektüre, dass man kaum noch von »lesen« sprechen mag. »Durchleben«, »durchstaunen« wären bei diesem Meisterwerk weitaus angebrachter, gar »Erlebnis« kommt einem in den Sinn. »Lebensverändernd« ist sie mindestens, die Lektüre dieses Romans. Die ätherische Blandine, die eine Obsession für Hildegard von Bingen entwickelt hat und durch das System gefallen zu sein scheint, lebt nur durch die dünnen Wände eines schäbigen Apartmentkomplexes in einem ehemaligen Industrieort in Indiana von ihren skurrilen Nachbarn getrennt: einer Frau, die online Nachrufe schreibt, einer jungen Mutter mit einem dunklen Geheimnis, und jemandem, der im Alleingang einen Feldzug gegen Nagetiere führt. Willkommen im Kaninchenstall. Ein Roman über den amerikanischen Rust Belt und seine Bewohner, die keineswegs alle über einen Kamm zu scheren sind, wie man fälschlicherweise annehmen könnte. Eine schonungslos schöne und beißend komische Momentaufnahme des zeitgenössischen Amerikas, eine hinreißende und provokante Geschichte über Einsamkeit und Sehnsucht, Verstrickung und schließlich: Freiheit.

Tess Gunty

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