To Place a Rabbit
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To Place a Rabbit
Narrated by:
Kimberly Huie
Buy Now for $32.48
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Narrated by:
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Kimberly Huie
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Written by:
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Madhur Anand
About this listen
A witty, irresistible debut novel from award-winning poet Madhur Anand about entangled desire in books, life and love.
This delightfully clever, artfully layered novel begins when a scientist who has written a popular book of non-fiction attends a literary festival, where she strikes up a friendship with a charismatic novelist. The novelist reveals that her new work is an experiment: a novella she wrote in English only to have it translated and published solely in French—a language the novelist cannot read. Moreover, she has lost her original English manuscript of this work. Hearing this, the scientist, who is fluent in French, impulsively offers to retranslate the novella back into English for the novelist.
As she embarks on this task, the scientist finds herself haunted by vivid memories and distracting questions—particularly about a passionate affair from her own life with a French lover. These insert themselves into her translation process, troubling it, then disrupting it entirely. She desperately tries to complete her task before losing control of both the work and her well-organized existence—but soon the novelist and the French lover reappear in the present, further complicating both life and art.
Here is sparkling, irresistible debut fiction from one of our most consistently inventive voices, the award-winning and multi-talented Madhur Anand.
What the critics say
Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2025 • CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction of 2025
“To Place a Rabbit is a singular work of fiction that both enlightens the mind and enriches the storytelling spirit. Madhur Anand has written a provocative and cerebral novel that will sit with me for years to come. There is so much here to absorb and appreciate: the intersection of art and science, the subjectivity of translation, the impermanence of memory, and more. A richly layered and generous book.” —Waubgeshig Rice
“What a fun, elegant novel! Equal parts erudite and musing, To Place a Rabbit plays with imagined possibilities in love and literature, travel and translation. As with Rachel Cusk and Andre Alexis, Anand’s writing appeals to heart and mind at once.” —Padma Viswanathan
“In its elegant language, intellectual inquiry and emotionally vivid characters and situations, To Place a Rabbit reminded me of the work of Deborah Levy. Smart, and delightful to read . . . an accomplished and thoughtful fiction debut.” —Shyam Selvadurai
“To Place a Rabbit is, more than anything, an unconventional love story. A contemplative yet thrilling waking-dream of a novel that has the potency to melt and meld time, language, life, art, and human connection. The kind of reading experience I often seek but rarely find.” —Iain Reid
“An inventive and richly imaginative meditation on the art of translation. Madhur Anand’s debut novel is accomplished and impressive.” —Helen Humphreys
“These pages pull coolly from a meticulous forager’s gifted grasp of the human psyche’s relentless creativities and labyrinthine hungers. . . . To Place a Rabbit is as exquisite a brief novel as you can hope to read.” —Canisia Lubrin
“Erudite and witty. . . . To Place a Rabbit is a clever, charming meditation on love (both het and sapphic), plant biology, physics, the art of translation, and contemporary literary and academic life. . . . This is a smart puzzle-box of a book, one I would highly recommended to fans of meta-fiction.” —E.J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor
“Science and poetry . . . are totally evident in this novel that reads like a coiled rope that is unwinding with each word, with breath-taking surprises and delights for any reader, or writer like myself, at every turn.” —Shani Mootoo
“Rendered in immersive prose that is as slippery as memory itself, To Place a Rabbit is a compelling portrait of a person who, undone by desire and inspiration, obsessively analyzes—and tampers with—the evidence of her past.” —Literary Review of Canada
“Madhur Anand has again created a work of elegance and exploration.” —Guelph Today
“To Place a Rabbit is a singular work of fiction that both enlightens the mind and enriches the storytelling spirit. Madhur Anand has written a provocative and cerebral novel that will sit with me for years to come. There is so much here to absorb and appreciate: the intersection of art and science, the subjectivity of translation, the impermanence of memory, and more. A richly layered and generous book.” —Waubgeshig Rice
“What a fun, elegant novel! Equal parts erudite and musing, To Place a Rabbit plays with imagined possibilities in love and literature, travel and translation. As with Rachel Cusk and Andre Alexis, Anand’s writing appeals to heart and mind at once.” —Padma Viswanathan
“In its elegant language, intellectual inquiry and emotionally vivid characters and situations, To Place a Rabbit reminded me of the work of Deborah Levy. Smart, and delightful to read . . . an accomplished and thoughtful fiction debut.” —Shyam Selvadurai
“To Place a Rabbit is, more than anything, an unconventional love story. A contemplative yet thrilling waking-dream of a novel that has the potency to melt and meld time, language, life, art, and human connection. The kind of reading experience I often seek but rarely find.” —Iain Reid
“An inventive and richly imaginative meditation on the art of translation. Madhur Anand’s debut novel is accomplished and impressive.” —Helen Humphreys
“These pages pull coolly from a meticulous forager’s gifted grasp of the human psyche’s relentless creativities and labyrinthine hungers. . . . To Place a Rabbit is as exquisite a brief novel as you can hope to read.” —Canisia Lubrin
“Erudite and witty. . . . To Place a Rabbit is a clever, charming meditation on love (both het and sapphic), plant biology, physics, the art of translation, and contemporary literary and academic life. . . . This is a smart puzzle-box of a book, one I would highly recommended to fans of meta-fiction.” —E.J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor
“Science and poetry . . . are totally evident in this novel that reads like a coiled rope that is unwinding with each word, with breath-taking surprises and delights for any reader, or writer like myself, at every turn.” —Shani Mootoo
“Rendered in immersive prose that is as slippery as memory itself, To Place a Rabbit is a compelling portrait of a person who, undone by desire and inspiration, obsessively analyzes—and tampers with—the evidence of her past.” —Literary Review of Canada
“Madhur Anand has again created a work of elegance and exploration.” —Guelph Today
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