National Book Award Winner

The Rabbit Hutch

by Tess Gunty

Summary

In a decaying apartment complex in a fading Indiana factory town, four teenagers recently aged out of foster care share a unit, their lives entangled with neighbors ranging from a grieving young mother to a former child star's online mourners. Gunty moves among voices and forms, including obituary comments and corporate emails, to map a community pressed thin by economic decline. Her prose is mordant, lyrical, and attentive to the strange tenderness of overlooked lives.

Historical Context & Significance

At 29, Gunty was one of the youngest winners; her prose was compared to a 'midwestern' version of Zadie Smith.