Not quite short enough to be a novella, at 190 pages The Burrow is condensed and freighted with wise emotion on every page. When a grieving couple buy a pet bunny for their teenage daughter, little do they realize that the creature will begin to dominate their slow recovery. When the wife’s mother, herself pivotal in the underlying tragedy, arrives to stay after an injury, the new suburban home of the rabbit becomes a roiling bed of change and crisis. This spare, unsentimental, detailed novel asks: will recovery begin or is this just another crisis? Melanie Cheng is a pinpoint stylist adept at cycling through the four sufferers, adept at manipulating plot in the service of emotional revelations. This reader found the first three quarters of The Burrow to be riveting; if the final quarter lost some intensity, nevertheless the overall journey was a touching, rewarding one.
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