The Rabbit Hutch

for what they re doing to Blandine right now. There is no such thing as right now. She is not another young woman wounded on the floor, body slashed by men for its resources no. She is paying attention. She is the last laugh.

On that hot night in Apartment C4, when Blandine Watkins exits her body, she is not everything. Not exactly. She s just the opposite of nothing.

All Together, Now

C12: On Wednesday night, in the nine o clock hour, the man who lives four floors above the crime is staring into an app called: Rate Your Date (Mature Users!). The app glows a deep red, and he is certain that there is no one inside it. Like many men who have weathered female rejection, the man in Apartment C12 believes that women have more power than anyone else on the planet. When evidence suggests that this can t be true, he gets angry. It is an anger unique to those who have committed themselves to a losing argument. The man now in his sixties lies on his sheets in the dark. He is done with the day, but the day is not done with itself; it is still too early to sleep. He is a logger, past his professional expiration date but lacking both the financial and psychological savings to retire. Often, he feels the weight of phantom lumber on his back like a child. Often, he feels the weight of a phantom child on his back like lumber. Since his wife died six years ago, the apartment has seemed empty of furniture, but it is, in fact, congested with furniture. Sweating, the man cradles his large, bright screen in his hands.

nice enuf, like a dad, but fatter then his prof pic. his eye contact = wrong. doesnt ask about u and seems obsessed w/ the prices. velcro wallet, user MelBell23 had commented on his profile two weeks ago. smells like gary indiana. ssuuu

The only other comment on his profile was posted six months ago, by DeniseDaBeast: this man is a tator tot. suuuu

banal and the ecstatic in a way that made me think of prime David Foster Wallace. It s a story of love, told without sentimentality; a story of cruelty, told without gratuitousness. Gunty is a captivating writer. Sarah Ditum, The Guardian

Original and incisive . . . This is an important American novel, a portrait of a dying city and, by extension, a dying system. Its propulsive power is not only in its insight and wit, but in the story of this ethereal girl. . . . She is so vibrantly alive and awake that when I finished this book, I wanted to feel that. I wanted to walk outside. I wanted what is real. I wanted to wake up. Tess Gunty s The Rabbit Hutch is breathtaking, compassionate and spectacular. Una Mannion, The Irish Times

A powerful and brutal book, brimming with dark and funny lines . . . Gunty s true subject, though, is a land of loneliness, squandered potential and exploitation that feels uniquely American and also the human interconnections and strokes of luck that can help us survive it. Dorany Pineda, Los Angeles Times

This seriously impressive debut novel about the inhabitants of a low-rent apartment block in small-town Indiana thrillingly blends the vivid realism and comic experimentalism so beloved of American fiction. The writing is incandescent, the range of styles and voices remarkable. . . . There s so much dazzling stuff here, it can be hard to know where to look. . . . What lingers is something simple: the sparkling interiority of its characters. Robert Collins, The Sunday Times (London)

Just when everything seemed designed for a brief moment of utility before its planned obsolescence, here comes The Rabbit Hutch, a profoundly wise, wildly inventive, deeply moving work of art whose seemingly infinite offerings will remain with you long after you finish it. Each page of this novel contains a novel, a world. Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated

The Rabbit Hutch aches, bleeds, and even scars but it also forgives with laughter, with insight, and finally, through an act of generational independence that remains this novel s greatest accomplishment, with an act of rescue, rescue of narrative, rescue from ritual, rescue of heart, the rescue of tomorrow. Mark Z. Danielewski, author of House of Leaves

Philosophical, and earthy, and tender and also simply very fun to read Tess Gunty is a distinctive talent, with a generous and gently brilliant mind. Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

An astonishing portrait . . . Gunty delves into the stories of Blandine s neighbors, brilliantly and achingly charting the range of their experiences. . . . It all ties together, achieving this first novelist s maximalist ambitions and making powerful use of language along the way. Readers will be breathless. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Darkly funny, surprising, and mesmerizing . . . A stunning and original debut that is as smart as it is entertaining . . . Gunty pans swiftly from room to room, perspective to perspective, molding a story that . . . is extremely suspenseful and culminates in a finale that will leave readers breathless. With sharp prose and startling imagery, the novel touches on subjects from environmental trauma to rampant consumerism to sexual power dynamics to mysticism to mental illness, all with an astonishing wisdom and imaginativeness. . . . A striking and wise depiction of what it means to be awake and alive in a dying building, city, nation, and world. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)