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When God was a Rabbit

When God was a Rabbit

Author(s): Sarah Winman

Location(s): Cornwall, Essex, New York City (NYC)

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1960s- turn of the 21st Century

Location

Content

1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born.

Young Elly’s world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents: a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like ‘slag’: an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind: lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly’s one constant is her brother Joe.

Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever.

Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it’s a story about love in all its forms.

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

‘Beguiling… you can’t quite get the voice out of your head'(Daily Mail ‘Thronging with incident, wonder and outré language… sharply funny, whimsical and innovative'(The Guardian )

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