Rabbits

'Darkly funny as Saltburn, but with kilts'

-- Val McDermid

'Sometimes sad, often funny coming-of-age story... a fine novel. It is moving, as novels of time lost and time recovered always are'

-- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *

'There is a lovely turn of phrase on every page...Combining Adrian Mole, Withnail and Iain Banks by way of Kingsley Amis, engaging, buffered by a nice line in self-deprecation'

-- Bernard Hughes * The Arts Desk *

'a coming-of-age story with a mind-blowing opening paragraph, the novel explores middle-class teenager Tommo's moves among the fading elite of society and the sinister undertow of their world, holding the reader in a vice-like grip all the way to the final page'

* Sunday Post *

'Hot on the heels of Saltburn and Jonny Sweet’s The Kellerby Code, Hugo Rifkind’s entertaining new novel offers another jaded look at the antics of the posh . . . keeps the outrageous laughs and twists coming in equal measure'

-- Alexander Larman * Observer *

'It is terrific... really captures the anxiety of youth'

-- Matt Chorley * Times Radio *

'Rabbits is an instantly compelling novel; it is simultaneously poignant, peculiar, tragic, and very, very funny. Highly recommended'

-- Sathnam Sanghera

'A remarkable achievement, a novel that so well encapsulates the slightly feral condition of teenage boys tasting independence for the first time ... recreates a world unknown to most readers, like Saltburn, rather creepily repellent, but with all its fascination to the outsider'

-- Linda Grant, Booker Shortlisted author of The Clothes on Their Backs

'The best 2 a.m.-whisky story of madly evocative nineties' youth: parties in crumbling houses, and a sense of time running out. This book is fabulous company – you’ll cancel your own parties to get to the end. A queasy, hilarious joy'

-- Caitlin Moran

'The leap from journalism to fiction is not always an easy one, but in Rifkind's case, my only frustration is that he took so long to take the leap. A darkly funny, often disturbing, hugely entertaining story that sneaks around behind the crumbling facades of wealth and masculinity to smoke a joint and shoot some shit'

-- Tim Minchin

'Rabbitspulls you in and doesn't let go. A dazzling, compelling novel'

-- John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends

'A menacingly funny story of dark secrets, coming-of-age faltering, and the dirty seduction of being sucked into elite circles... Rabbits is a droll, bold, disturbing dynamo of a book'

-- Joanne Owen * LoveReading *

'The novel captures the awkwardness of boyhood, of fierce friendship, the danger of neglect...Shotguns, drugs, kilts, testosterone and a lonely-boy hero caught up in a murder mystery is a dangerous combination. Rifkind nails the blood-chilling brutality of the upper classes'

-- Genevieve Gaunt * The Spectator *

'A poignant story of doomed love... a "proper debut", a coming of age story drawing heavily on his own background and experience'

* Herald *

'A dark and deeply unsettling tale of aristocratic excess, fatalism, snobbery and unfeasibly large, crumbling mansions set in remote Scottish glens. Rifkind is a famously entertaining writer and in Rabbits he takes the handbrake off'

* Scottish Field *

'Told in a breezy, irreverent style that plumbs black comedy to reveal its tragedy, Rabbits feels like a blend of Brideshead Revisited and Less Than Zero reworked by Chris Brookmyre'

-- Declan Burke * Irish Times *

'Rifkind shows us that he is a natural born storyteller with this dark hearted and richly imagined tale. The novelists vivid descriptions and addictive writing style make for a fast paced and compelling read'

-- Dawn Geddes * Scots Magazine *

'PHENOMENAL new book from the always reliably excellent Hugo Rifkind. Read this in a single day by the pool, skipping lunch to finish it'

-- Mark Miller, Comic Book Writer

'Rifkind's gripping thriller, a coming-of-age story that reads like a less graphic Saltburn, with kilts and ceilidhs instead of Sophie Ellis-Bextor'

* The Jewish Chronicle *

'Darkly funny, tragic and instantly compelling, Rabbits is a coming-of-age story that encapsulates the slightly feral condition of teenage boys in rural Scotland tasting independence for the first time'

-- Madeleine Knowles * NB Magazi