MARY & THE RABBIT DREAM by Noémi Kiss-Deáki
MARY & THE RABBIT DREAM by Noémi Kiss-Deáki
Mary Toft was just another eighteenth-century woman living in poverty, misery, and frequent pain. The kind of person overlooked by those with power, forgotten by historians.Mary Toft was nothing. Until, that is, Mary Toft started giving birth to rabbits...In Mary and the Rabbit Dream, the sensational debut novelist Noémi Kiss-Deáki reimagines Mary's strange and fascinating story - and how she found fame when a large swath of England became convinced that she was the mother of rabbits.
Mary and the Rabbit Dream is a story of bodily autonomy, of absurdity, of the horrors inflicted on women, of the cruel realities of poverty, and the grotesque divides between rich and poor. It's a book that matters deeply - and it's also a compelling page-turner. A story told with exquisite wit, skill, and a beautiful streak of subversive mischief.
"Noémi Kiss-Deáki's style is astonishing - hypnotic, poetic, persistent, wild, blazing and marvellous. As the novel unfolds you simply can't believe what is happening - it's outrageous, it's cruel, it's unfathomable and yet - it's the way of the world. Here is Mary Toft's tale, retold in dazzling prose that is both exquisite and furious. Noémi reimagines the possibilities for historical fiction and Mary and the Rabbit Dream is utterly original and utterly brilliant." - Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain