This debut novel and National Book Award Winner for fiction in 2022 tells the story of several tenants in a run down apartment building know as the rabbit hutch in Vacca Vale, Indiana. The main character, Blandine, is an eighteen year old who believes in mystics, was a foster child, and lives with three young men who are also products of Vacca Vale’s foster care system. Tess Gunty also introduces her readers to a dead child star, her wacko son, a young mother who is unable to look into the eyes of her very young child and a lonely spinster who edits letters of condolence that follow a newspaper’s obituaries.

Gunty’s novel is intriguing and quirky. She has taken an old plot- what happens to people who live in close proximity to one another-and put her own twist on it. The Rabbit Hutch is book that would make for great discussions in a book group. Like it or hate it, there’s lots to talk about.