In Brief: Rabbits for Food; Nazi Wives; Wakenhyrst – review

Rabbits for Food

Binnie Kirshenbaum
Profile, £12.99, pp384

Kirshenbaum’s seventh novel opens with the protagonist, Bunny, sitting on a bench in a psychiatric ward awaiting the arrival of a therapy dog that never appears. She is in hospital following a New Year’s Eve breakdown after months of depression. As the novel spools back in time, we follow Bunny’s journey from accomplished writer to psychiatric patient, by way of her best friend’s death and flashbacks to her childhood. In the hospital, Bunny clashes with the doctors, makes wicked observations on her fellow patients and writes hilariously about the hospital’s creative writing class. Razor-sharp, astutely observed and acerbically funny.

Nazi Wives: The Women at the Top of Hitler’s Germany

James Wyllie
The History Press, £20, pp288
“Among the thousands of books about Nazism,” writes Wyllie, “barely a handful focus on the wives of the leading figures in Hitler’s regime.” Redressing that imbalance, Wyllie tells the stories of the wives of Goering, Goebbels, Himmler and others, charting the trajectory of each from first becoming involved in the movement through the war and beyond, into “the postwar twilight of denial and delusion”. Highlighting similarities in the women’s backgrounds, Wyllie provides a distinctive prism through which to view the period.

Wakenhyrst

Michelle Paver
Head of Zeus, £8.99, pp368 (paperback)

It’s 1966 and 69-year-old Maud lives as a recluse in a semi-derelict Suffolk manor house, which she has inhabited since her father bludgeoned someone to death with a pickaxe more than 50 years ago. Having lived out the rest of his days in an asylum, her father has recently died, leaving behind a triptych of paintings that may have contributed to his madness. The narrative returns to Maud’s troubled childhood with her tyrannical father, whose misogynism and sexual exploitation we learn about through Maud’s reading of his diary. Treading a fine line between the supernatural and psychological torment, Paver’s tale is atmospheric and intriguing.

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