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The Burrow
A wise and moving story about a family navigating grief, hope, and healing through a bond with a new pet rabbit.
“How rare, this delicacy—this calm, sweet, desolated wisdom.”—Helen Garner
The Burrow follows members of the Lee family as they navigate grief and hope in their quiet Australian Jin, an emergency physician and father; Amy, a published author and mother; Lucie, their bookish and introverted ten-year-old; and Pauline, Amy’s mother who’s trying to make amends. Racked with grief for Ruby—Lucie’s baby sister who died in a shocking accident—the family adopts a rabbit in the hopes of bringing much-needed cheer to their home. At first, each family member benefits from the distraction of a new and needy creature, but when a violent home invasion breaks their fragile sense of peace, the family is forced to confront the terrible circumstances surrounding Ruby’s death.Atmospheric and tautly lyrical, Melanie Cheng’s slim novel brings together four distinct perspectives—and one wide-eyed rabbit—to reveal the enormity of loss, long-buried family secrets, and how to survive in a newfound world after the ultimate tragedy.
“How rare, this delicacy—this calm, sweet, desolated wisdom.”—Helen Garner
The Burrow follows members of the Lee family as they navigate grief and hope in their quiet Australian Jin, an emergency physician and father; Amy, a published author and mother; Lucie, their bookish and introverted ten-year-old; and Pauline, Amy’s mother who’s trying to make amends. Racked with grief for Ruby—Lucie’s baby sister who died in a shocking accident—the family adopts a rabbit in the hopes of bringing much-needed cheer to their home. At first, each family member benefits from the distraction of a new and needy creature, but when a violent home invasion breaks their fragile sense of peace, the family is forced to confront the terrible circumstances surrounding Ruby’s death.Atmospheric and tautly lyrical, Melanie Cheng’s slim novel brings together four distinct perspectives—and one wide-eyed rabbit—to reveal the enormity of loss, long-buried family secrets, and how to survive in a newfound world after the ultimate tragedy.
200 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 2024
267 people are currently reading
10868 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Cheng
11 books138 followersI am a writer, mum and general practitioner from Melbourne, Australia. I have been published in print and online. My writing has appeared in The Age, Meanjin, Overland, Griffith REVIEW, Sleepers Almanac, The Bridport Prize Anthology, Lascaux Review, Visible Ink, Peril, The Victorian Writer and Seizure. My short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript and went on to win the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. My latest book is the novel, Room for a Stranger. If Saul Bellow is right and “a writer is a reader moved to emulation” then I am moved by authors like Richard Yates, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami and Christos Tsiolkas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 513 reviews
April 14, 2025
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 STELLA PRIZE!
‘The most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be over. “The Burrow” - Franz Kafka.’
THE BURROW follows members of the Lee family as they navigate grief and hope in their quiet Australian suburb: Jin, an emergency physician and father; Amy, a published author and mother; Lucie, their bookish and introverted ten year old; and Pauline, Amy’s mother who’s trying to make amends. After the wake of a shocking accident, the family adopts a rabbit in the hopes of bringing much needed cheer to their home.
Atmospheric and tautly lyrical, Melanie Cheng’s slim novel brings together four distinct perspectives to reveal the enormity of loss, long buried family secrets and how to survive in a newfound world after the ultimate tragedy.
Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of these characters, we even get a couple of short snippets from the rabbit’s point of view, providing us with deep insights into the strained relationships in the family and how they are dealing with a tragic death.
Towards the end of the book, buried secrets and resentments finally come to light, and are put into words which shake up the characters’ relationships as never before.
Through all of this runs the presence of the little rabbit, symbolising the fragility of life while also representing a focus for love and care.
The Burrow is a wise and moving story about a family navigating grief, hope and healing through a bond with a new pet rabbit.
My Highest Recommendation.
Warmest regards to Text Publishing for gifting me an advanced copy of The Burrow for review.
‘The most beautiful thing about my burrow is the stillness. Of course, that is deceptive. At any moment it may be shattered and then all will be over. “The Burrow” - Franz Kafka.’
THE BURROW follows members of the Lee family as they navigate grief and hope in their quiet Australian suburb: Jin, an emergency physician and father; Amy, a published author and mother; Lucie, their bookish and introverted ten year old; and Pauline, Amy’s mother who’s trying to make amends. After the wake of a shocking accident, the family adopts a rabbit in the hopes of bringing much needed cheer to their home.
Atmospheric and tautly lyrical, Melanie Cheng’s slim novel brings together four distinct perspectives to reveal the enormity of loss, long buried family secrets and how to survive in a newfound world after the ultimate tragedy.
Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of these characters, we even get a couple of short snippets from the rabbit’s point of view, providing us with deep insights into the strained relationships in the family and how they are dealing with a tragic death.
Towards the end of the book, buried secrets and resentments finally come to light, and are put into words which shake up the characters’ relationships as never before.
Through all of this runs the presence of the little rabbit, symbolising the fragility of life while also representing a focus for love and care.
The Burrow is a wise and moving story about a family navigating grief, hope and healing through a bond with a new pet rabbit.
My Highest Recommendation.
Warmest regards to Text Publishing for gifting me an advanced copy of The Burrow for review.
May 12, 2025
Melanie Cheng has delivered on what seems to be simple story about four people and a rabbit.
Parents Jin and Amy suffered an unbearable loss. An unspeakable tragedy that has impacted their relationship significantly. Jin is a busy Emergency Care Doctor here in Australia, he can immerse himself in his work, and the people he works with. Amy is also a doctor, but has taken a break to concentrate on her writing – she spends most of her time in a sort of floating trance.
Pauline is Amy’s retired mother. She is staying with the family as she’s recovering from an injury. Pauline’s relationship with Amy is fractious, they both walk on eggshells.
Then there’s the sweet little daughter Lucie – the new owner of Fiver a recently acquired rabbit.
I went into this thinking it may be an over sentimental journey into a family recovering from horrendous grief, and a bunny comes along and, suddenly, it’s all about rivers of chocolate and children with gumdrop smiles. Well, not quite.
This is a gritty piece about grief, the writing is simple, sparse even – Cheng writes just enough for us to feel how these family members deal with their emotions, but importantly, on how they deal with each other. This is where the real drama lies.
Then there’s sweet little Lucie, caught up in this adult world of loss and conflict. All while trying to cope with something she is too young to deal with.
Fiver comes along – and plays a role to facilitate some sort of bonding among the family, but it’s not dealt with in a sickly-sweet fashion This part of the story was heartbreaking too.
It struck me again, how important a role pets play in enhancing family dynamics. The beautiful thing about it is, they don’t even know they’re doing it. That’s selfless love in my book.
What a beautiful story about a terrible topic. A topic we all have dealt with or will deal with during our time on this planet.
5 Stars
Parents Jin and Amy suffered an unbearable loss. An unspeakable tragedy that has impacted their relationship significantly. Jin is a busy Emergency Care Doctor here in Australia, he can immerse himself in his work, and the people he works with. Amy is also a doctor, but has taken a break to concentrate on her writing – she spends most of her time in a sort of floating trance.
Pauline is Amy’s retired mother. She is staying with the family as she’s recovering from an injury. Pauline’s relationship with Amy is fractious, they both walk on eggshells.
Then there’s the sweet little daughter Lucie – the new owner of Fiver a recently acquired rabbit.
I went into this thinking it may be an over sentimental journey into a family recovering from horrendous grief, and a bunny comes along and, suddenly, it’s all about rivers of chocolate and children with gumdrop smiles. Well, not quite.
This is a gritty piece about grief, the writing is simple, sparse even – Cheng writes just enough for us to feel how these family members deal with their emotions, but importantly, on how they deal with each other. This is where the real drama lies.
Then there’s sweet little Lucie, caught up in this adult world of loss and conflict. All while trying to cope with something she is too young to deal with.
Fiver comes along – and plays a role to facilitate some sort of bonding among the family, but it’s not dealt with in a sickly-sweet fashion This part of the story was heartbreaking too.
It struck me again, how important a role pets play in enhancing family dynamics. The beautiful thing about it is, they don’t even know they’re doing it. That’s selfless love in my book.
What a beautiful story about a terrible topic. A topic we all have dealt with or will deal with during our time on this planet.
5 Stars
June 18, 2025
I wanted to like this book so much, but while I liked the story and my heart twinged, I wanted them all to connect and heal after such a tragedy... I felt somehow not connected to any of the characters. I think it's just me... maybe I'm used to uber sentimentality...🤷🏾♀️ I'm definitely an outlier review.
June 15, 2025
***Shortlisted for The Stella Prize 2025***
“And nowadays memories were everywhere.”
A beautifully told story about how grief has the power to destroy and consume, while a floppy eared bunny has the power to heal.
After a family tragedy four years prior, time doesn't necessarily heal. Or make the hurt and guilt any easier to deal with. Circling around each other and not saying what they truly feel, the parents of this small family are reaching breaking point. The post-Covid world doesn't help, as Melbourne suffers the after effects of a never ending lock down.
Fiver (named after the main rabbit in Watership Down) is brought home for young daughter Lucie ostensibly as the family pet. But to perhaps be a companion? A focus and talking point? To bring this disjointed family back together again?
Melanie Cheng writes beautifully about how damn tough grief is to recover from, if ever. And yet it is not morbid or morose. It's done with a gentle concern, like someone placing a hand on your shoulder when you are upset.
There is a depth of understanding as she shows how deeply the loss is felt from each of the family members' perspectives.
I read this in one sitting on Anzac Day. I really think if you have the opportunity to do the same it's the best way to complete it.
I'm thrilled this made it to the Stella shortlist, and would feel perfectly content for it to win. There needs to be more empathy in the world.
I invite you to listen to her speak about her novel:
The Burrow – Stella
https://stella.org.au/book/the-burrow/
“And nowadays memories were everywhere.”
A beautifully told story about how grief has the power to destroy and consume, while a floppy eared bunny has the power to heal.
After a family tragedy four years prior, time doesn't necessarily heal. Or make the hurt and guilt any easier to deal with. Circling around each other and not saying what they truly feel, the parents of this small family are reaching breaking point. The post-Covid world doesn't help, as Melbourne suffers the after effects of a never ending lock down.
Fiver (named after the main rabbit in Watership Down) is brought home for young daughter Lucie ostensibly as the family pet. But to perhaps be a companion? A focus and talking point? To bring this disjointed family back together again?
Melanie Cheng writes beautifully about how damn tough grief is to recover from, if ever. And yet it is not morbid or morose. It's done with a gentle concern, like someone placing a hand on your shoulder when you are upset.
There is a depth of understanding as she shows how deeply the loss is felt from each of the family members' perspectives.
I read this in one sitting on Anzac Day. I really think if you have the opportunity to do the same it's the best way to complete it.
I'm thrilled this made it to the Stella shortlist, and would feel perfectly content for it to win. There needs to be more empathy in the world.
I invite you to listen to her speak about her novel:
The Burrow – Stella
https://stella.org.au/book/the-burrow/
February 7, 2025
4.25 stars
A really beautiful, quick book about a family that lost one of its daughters and how they are navigating their grief while also in the middle of a COVID lockdown. Highly recommend this one if you're looking to have a book pull at your heartstrings.
(For those who are avoiding COVID-related books, this one is more about the family grief and brokenness and the lockdown feels like it serves more as a means to create forced closed spaces for these characters to confront the things and people they've been pushing away)
A really beautiful, quick book about a family that lost one of its daughters and how they are navigating their grief while also in the middle of a COVID lockdown. Highly recommend this one if you're looking to have a book pull at your heartstrings.
(For those who are avoiding COVID-related books, this one is more about the family grief and brokenness and the lockdown feels like it serves more as a means to create forced closed spaces for these characters to confront the things and people they've been pushing away)
October 8, 2024
A gentle book about a family overwhelmed by guilt and grief after the death of baby Ruby four years earlier. It’s a pandemic novel so there’s also a sense of isolation. Parents Jin and Amy, 10year old daughter, Lucie and Pauline, Amy’s mother, are the characters moving around each other in a distant manner, particularly Amy. Amy is a writer and hasn’t been able to write anything in the 4 years. At the beginning of the story, Jin is bringing home a pet rabbit for Lucie and he has a panic attack that makes him pull over. There’s much to like about this quiet novel, the author gets inside each characters head and it feels very human. A short, powerful read.
February 1, 2025
4.5
Rabbits and hares have a moment in literature—or at least it seems so, I've come across several books with covers featuring these cute animals.
Fiver is a rabbit who came to live with the Lee family. There used to be four of them in the family, but the baby, Ruby, died a few years earlier. Her older sister, Lucie, is an introverted, lonely ten-year-old. The mother, Amy, is a former doctor, now a writer, who can't write. She's stuck, broken and frozen. Jin, is an emergency doctor and father. He's got his own struggles and ways of dealing with them.
Amy's mother, Pauline, has to move in with them due to breaking her dominant arm. There's a lot of unspoken animosity and reproaches between the grown-ups.
On top of everything else, the pandemic is around them.
The Burrow is an atmospheric, realistic novel about grief, regrets, parenthood and relationships - a truly well-realised novel that will stay with me.
I've received the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Text Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Rabbits and hares have a moment in literature—or at least it seems so, I've come across several books with covers featuring these cute animals.
Fiver is a rabbit who came to live with the Lee family. There used to be four of them in the family, but the baby, Ruby, died a few years earlier. Her older sister, Lucie, is an introverted, lonely ten-year-old. The mother, Amy, is a former doctor, now a writer, who can't write. She's stuck, broken and frozen. Jin, is an emergency doctor and father. He's got his own struggles and ways of dealing with them.
Amy's mother, Pauline, has to move in with them due to breaking her dominant arm. There's a lot of unspoken animosity and reproaches between the grown-ups.
On top of everything else, the pandemic is around them.
The Burrow is an atmospheric, realistic novel about grief, regrets, parenthood and relationships - a truly well-realised novel that will stay with me.
I've received the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Text Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
January 2, 2026
I liked this story, though perhaps not as much as many others. I felt little affinity for the characters—except the rabbit, of course.🐇 I’ll always bond with the animal… you can count on that.😉
It’s been 4 years since the family (mom, dad, 10-yr old daughter, and maternal grandmother) experienced the agonising loss of a 6-month old daughter. Yet, rather than bringing the family closer—as often happens—it tears this family apart. Each holds a good deal of resentment, and no one wants to talk about it. For me, this serves to make the characters feel “flat”—almost unknowable. Never having been a mother, it’s possible I may not understand the situation, relationships, or feelings in quite the same way a parent would. But even so, I feel the book falls a little bit short and, for that reason, I’ve given it 3.5 stars, rounded down.
The pet rabbit—Fiver (named for a rabbit in Watership Down)—was a lovely addition to the story but, sadly, it didn’t have nearly the “softening” effect I thought it would have. But, as mentioned, that may be due to the somewhat taciturn nature of the humans in the story. And though even the 10-yr-old remained “closed-off” to some extent, she at least seemed to want more openness in the family. (Out of the mouths of babes, right?😏)
This was my second book by the author. I read her debut, Room for a Stranger, nearly six years ago and really enjoyed it.
3.5 “Moving–on–doesn’t–mean–letting–go.” stars ⭐⭐⭐
It’s been 4 years since the family (mom, dad, 10-yr old daughter, and maternal grandmother) experienced the agonising loss of a 6-month old daughter. Yet, rather than bringing the family closer—as often happens—it tears this family apart. Each holds a good deal of resentment, and no one wants to talk about it. For me, this serves to make the characters feel “flat”—almost unknowable. Never having been a mother, it’s possible I may not understand the situation, relationships, or feelings in quite the same way a parent would. But even so, I feel the book falls a little bit short and, for that reason, I’ve given it 3.5 stars, rounded down.
The pet rabbit—Fiver (named for a rabbit in Watership Down)—was a lovely addition to the story but, sadly, it didn’t have nearly the “softening” effect I thought it would have. But, as mentioned, that may be due to the somewhat taciturn nature of the humans in the story. And though even the 10-yr-old remained “closed-off” to some extent, she at least seemed to want more openness in the family. (Out of the mouths of babes, right?😏)
This was my second book by the author. I read her debut, Room for a Stranger, nearly six years ago and really enjoyed it.
3.5 “Moving–on–doesn’t–mean–letting–go.” stars ⭐⭐⭐
May 4, 2025
A little gem of a book. I was able to empathise with all four of the main characters - Amy, Jin, Lucie and Pauline - despite their differences from each other and from me. Made me reflect on those torturous Melbourne lockdowns that still feel too close for comfort 4-5 years later. This is the second book I've read by Melanie Cheng and it has confirmed for me that she is an author who really gets people - how lucky the patients of her GP practice are to have her!
Although Casey Withoos is one of my favourite narrators, I actually didn't love her work on this one. Not sure why. But it wasn't enough to ruin the reading experience (just didn't enhance it). At barely 4 hours, it was no chore to listen.
Although Casey Withoos is one of my favourite narrators, I actually didn't love her work on this one. Not sure why. But it wasn't enough to ruin the reading experience (just didn't enhance it). At barely 4 hours, it was no chore to listen.
July 16, 2024
I was delighted to discover in the acknowledgements that Melanie Cheng’s rabbit shares a name with our dog – Miles (we call ours Milo). We named him in honour of Michelle de Kretser and her Miles Franklin awards as she (Michelle) saved him (Milo) from a bad situation and gave him to us. The thing I love most about Cheng’s writing is the everydayness of life she depicts. It’s all so real and ordinary but then through her lens the beauty and wonder in the ordinary is on full display. Her prose is beautiful and there’s always so much empathy and compassion afforded her characters. I loved this sad family stuck in their grief until a pandemic and a sweet rabbit come into their lives – the transformative power of a pet!
August 24, 2025
This is a slim, sparsely written novel about a family dealing with grief, change, and the quiet shaping of everyday life. On the surface, it introduces the metaphor of an adopted pet rabbit, but never quite lands what is intended. At best, the rabbit seems to gesture at themes of loss and neglect. At worst, it feels like a half-formed metaphor that slips away as quickly as the animal itself. To be frank, by the end the rabbit is not a metaphor, but an alarming sign of animal neglect.
The book does succeed in portraying grief, though not in the raw, visceral way some might expect. Instead, it’s a controlled and muted grief, less about the ache of loss and more about resignation and quiet acceptance. Life goes on, whether or not anyone really cares. And the characters in this book walk a fine line between caring and indifference. There’s something effective in that restraint, though it might frustrate readers hoping for a more cathartic emotional approach.
The prose is sparse and restrained and often left the characters feeling flat and grey. There is more depth near the end, but much of the book passes with them as shadows. The one standout issue for me was Lucie, the ten year old daughter. She’s given interior monologues that sound far closer to a teenager or even an adult, with observations such as “happy moments are like early scenes in a movie…" breaking the illusion of her age and ripping me out of the story.
In the end, this book is about acceptance rather than transformation. It captures the stillness and ugliness of grief, but it never fully immerses the reader into the characters. For me, it was a mixed experience. It's a well-written novel that felt quite sterile.
The book does succeed in portraying grief, though not in the raw, visceral way some might expect. Instead, it’s a controlled and muted grief, less about the ache of loss and more about resignation and quiet acceptance. Life goes on, whether or not anyone really cares. And the characters in this book walk a fine line between caring and indifference. There’s something effective in that restraint, though it might frustrate readers hoping for a more cathartic emotional approach.
The prose is sparse and restrained and often left the characters feeling flat and grey. There is more depth near the end, but much of the book passes with them as shadows. The one standout issue for me was Lucie, the ten year old daughter. She’s given interior monologues that sound far closer to a teenager or even an adult, with observations such as “happy moments are like early scenes in a movie…" breaking the illusion of her age and ripping me out of the story.
In the end, this book is about acceptance rather than transformation. It captures the stillness and ugliness of grief, but it never fully immerses the reader into the characters. For me, it was a mixed experience. It's a well-written novel that felt quite sterile.
March 18, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
The Burrow.
I was intrigued by the premise first and the great cover second.
I love any novel featuring animals.
This is a beautifully written novella about love, guilt, sorrow, grief, and how life goes on despite a shocking loss; how joy can still be found in the simple mundanities of life.
The author writes with great warmth and respect.
Her writing style flows and the tone is kind and tender as readers are introduced to each of the family member's perspective and how they are dealing (and not dealing) with their shocking loss.
As each family member deals with the loss in their own way and learns to forgive, not each other, but themselves, can the healing begin.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
I was intrigued by the premise first and the great cover second.
I love any novel featuring animals.
This is a beautifully written novella about love, guilt, sorrow, grief, and how life goes on despite a shocking loss; how joy can still be found in the simple mundanities of life.
The author writes with great warmth and respect.
Her writing style flows and the tone is kind and tender as readers are introduced to each of the family member's perspective and how they are dealing (and not dealing) with their shocking loss.
As each family member deals with the loss in their own way and learns to forgive, not each other, but themselves, can the healing begin.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
October 23, 2024
I will read anything Melanie Cheng writes. I finish each of her books in awe of her ability to so perfectly evoke the beauty and emotion in the everydayness of life through precise and gentle prose.
At 200 pages, THE BURROW is a perfect example of the author’s superb talent for concise storytelling. It packs a punch in the most unassuming of ways.
THE BURROW is the story of a family - mother, father, child and grandmother - in the depths of grief following the death of a baby years earlier. Within the family, each lives in a silo, burdened by their own guilt and feelings but never sharing. Adding to their isolation, we meet them during the pandemic amidst enforced lockdowns. Will a new pet rabbit help the family to heal?
This is a pandemic story without beating you over the head with it, and it all worked so well with the themes of isolation, grief, loss and family.
THE BURROW is a poignant, gentle and tender story. Readers, please pick this up and follow it down the rabbit hole.
My thanks to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.
At 200 pages, THE BURROW is a perfect example of the author’s superb talent for concise storytelling. It packs a punch in the most unassuming of ways.
THE BURROW is the story of a family - mother, father, child and grandmother - in the depths of grief following the death of a baby years earlier. Within the family, each lives in a silo, burdened by their own guilt and feelings but never sharing. Adding to their isolation, we meet them during the pandemic amidst enforced lockdowns. Will a new pet rabbit help the family to heal?
This is a pandemic story without beating you over the head with it, and it all worked so well with the themes of isolation, grief, loss and family.
THE BURROW is a poignant, gentle and tender story. Readers, please pick this up and follow it down the rabbit hole.
My thanks to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.
December 4, 2024
Finished in 24 hours, short read but not short on emotion or meaning. A rabbit joins a family as lockdown is ending. A family desperately looking for reasons to keep surviving after tragedy. Like the rabbit they are hyper vigilant and acting like prey and burrowing. Enjoyed the writing style.
July 29, 2024
The Burrow is a difficult book to categorise. I finally settled on the focus is recovery, everyone is unsettled, three generations of women, a rabbit and the father, husband and son in law. The time is lockdown and the pointers are there of masks, interrupted schooling and restrictions on movement. They all left their scars on families. Melanie Cheng treads carefully through the family relationship and the rabbit works hard to be the glue that will hold them together. The writing is lyrical, the pace is considered and I’m struggling a bit to think of the lessons. Maybe that it’s in the case of tragedy all things will pass and I’m sure there is a place for that learning through The Burrow.
June 5, 2025
Adooooored this. Sweet without being trite and ultimately very moving.
June 7, 2025
Lovely gentle read. This is the first Covid lockdown novel I’ve picked up - I guess it’s been long enough now that I am happy to go back there in my mind. She writes so beautifully, this is a study in understated family emotion and while it’s intense it’s also somehow hopeful.
I loved her short story collection , did t like her previous novel so much, pleased to see she is back on form with this novella. Love a novella.
I loved her short story collection , did t like her previous novel so much, pleased to see she is back on form with this novella. Love a novella.
March 7, 2025
A carefully crafted story that begins simply - a family, Amy, Jin and Lucie are leading an isolated life during the COVID lockdowns. They buy a pet rabbit (named Fiver) for Lucie, and soon after Amy’s mother, Pauline, who is recovering from a broken wrist, comes to stay.
Cheng keeps a tight focus on the family dynamics, and in doing so reveals the tensions between each character and ultimately an emotionally complex back-story. The use of COVID to create a sense of isolation, and the rabbit to symbolise our need for love and care is exquisitely done.
It's no secret that I'm drawn to grief stories - it's usually memoir but occasionally fiction comes along that offers insight, sensitivity and feels 'real'. Cheng has created an absorbing and deeply felt story.
It's been longlisted for the Stella Prize and I reckon it could win.
4/5
Cheng keeps a tight focus on the family dynamics, and in doing so reveals the tensions between each character and ultimately an emotionally complex back-story. The use of COVID to create a sense of isolation, and the rabbit to symbolise our need for love and care is exquisitely done.
It's no secret that I'm drawn to grief stories - it's usually memoir but occasionally fiction comes along that offers insight, sensitivity and feels 'real'. Cheng has created an absorbing and deeply felt story.
It's been longlisted for the Stella Prize and I reckon it could win.
4/5
December 26, 2024
4.5 stars... I feel fortunate to have come across a series of great reads lately. I finished The Burrow in a day—it's a short book, but its raw and honest portrayal of unspoken guilt and sadness left a lasting impact. The story follows a rabbit that weaves itself into a family struggling with their relationships. In the process, it becomes the glue holding them together, and perhaps even the catalyst for healing. Unexpected, great read
December 18, 2024
After a devastating loss, the Lee family tries to cope as well as they can. This book was filled with raw emotion and had such a real feel to it. Told from different perspectives within the family we learn each person’s inner feelings and motivations which I thought was very insightful without being so fleshed out that it was too much. Thank you to GoodReads for the giveaway!
June 4, 2025
3.5. So close to a 4 because it was such a beautiful writing and vivid characters. I just found it so gloomy and sad and lacking the burst of hope for it to really stick with me!
June 8, 2025
"The Burrow" is short, sad and slow. Really slow. The kind of book where not a lot happens, but somehow everything does. It floats along in that slightly unreal, dream-adjacent way, like someone trudging through fog with no real urgency to get anywhere. You either go with it or you don’t.
This was my first time reading Cheng, and I can see why people rate her. There’s a quiet confidence to the way she writes, especially in how she handles character. No bells, no whistles, just four different perspectives carefully laid out and left to breathe. It’s a book about family, and all the tiny, mostly invisible ways we hurt each other - usually out of love, or at least something close to it. Everyone’s trying, everyone’s failing a bit, and no one’s talking about it properly. It’s clear-eyed, unsentimental and all the more affecting because of it.
It’s also a novel full of grief and guilt and silence - the kind that builds up between generations and settles into the walls. Reminded me a little of Helen Garner, but with the edges smoothed off and a more dreamlike slant. There’s pain here, sure, but it’s hushed. No shouting matches or big dramatic reckonings, just a slow unspooling of what people hold back and why.
Now, the rabbit. I’ve got no idea. It’s definitely a metaphor, but for what? Death? Denial? A family’s collective unease? Or maybe it’s just a rabbit. I didn’t mind the strangeness, though it never quite landed for me. Felt like a bit of symbolic theatre in a book that otherwise doesn’t try too hard.
The writing itself is restrained, maybe a bit too much at times. I admire the lack of flashiness, but there were moments where I wanted it to dig in a little deeper, hit a nerve. Still, it’s emotionally honest, never overwrought, and when it works, it really works.
So yeah. "The Burrow" didn’t blow me away, but I respected it. It’s tender and slow and has a kind of quiet ache to it. Might not be everyone’s thing, though if you’re in the mood for something gentle and a bit strange, it might just burrow under your skin.
This was my first time reading Cheng, and I can see why people rate her. There’s a quiet confidence to the way she writes, especially in how she handles character. No bells, no whistles, just four different perspectives carefully laid out and left to breathe. It’s a book about family, and all the tiny, mostly invisible ways we hurt each other - usually out of love, or at least something close to it. Everyone’s trying, everyone’s failing a bit, and no one’s talking about it properly. It’s clear-eyed, unsentimental and all the more affecting because of it.
It’s also a novel full of grief and guilt and silence - the kind that builds up between generations and settles into the walls. Reminded me a little of Helen Garner, but with the edges smoothed off and a more dreamlike slant. There’s pain here, sure, but it’s hushed. No shouting matches or big dramatic reckonings, just a slow unspooling of what people hold back and why.
Now, the rabbit. I’ve got no idea. It’s definitely a metaphor, but for what? Death? Denial? A family’s collective unease? Or maybe it’s just a rabbit. I didn’t mind the strangeness, though it never quite landed for me. Felt like a bit of symbolic theatre in a book that otherwise doesn’t try too hard.
The writing itself is restrained, maybe a bit too much at times. I admire the lack of flashiness, but there were moments where I wanted it to dig in a little deeper, hit a nerve. Still, it’s emotionally honest, never overwrought, and when it works, it really works.
So yeah. "The Burrow" didn’t blow me away, but I respected it. It’s tender and slow and has a kind of quiet ache to it. Might not be everyone’s thing, though if you’re in the mood for something gentle and a bit strange, it might just burrow under your skin.
October 21, 2025
4 / A sad sweet story of family and loss. Amy, Jin and Lucie are isolating from the world during Covid, and in a sense from each other as they struggle to normalise their shared grief from a profound loss.
Going through the motions is interrupted by a small rabbit and a grandmother who have arrived. Both will have a profound affect on the way they have been living and interacting.
Melanie did very well in her choosing of the rabbit for her novel and I enjoyed the analogy between the nature of the hypervigilant pet being introduced to the family teetering on the edge.
Overall a quiet, very real read of things left unspoken and how to move forward with guilt, blame and heartbreak ever present.
4 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Casey Withoos
Going through the motions is interrupted by a small rabbit and a grandmother who have arrived. Both will have a profound affect on the way they have been living and interacting.
Melanie did very well in her choosing of the rabbit for her novel and I enjoyed the analogy between the nature of the hypervigilant pet being introduced to the family teetering on the edge.
Overall a quiet, very real read of things left unspoken and how to move forward with guilt, blame and heartbreak ever present.
4 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Casey Withoos
December 26, 2024
I would like to thank Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately this book did not do it for me.
Almost all characters were very unlikable and I hated how the ending turned out.
Unfortunately this book did not do it for me.
Almost all characters were very unlikable and I hated how the ending turned out.
Read
June 30, 2025The following reviews have been shared by Text Publishing, publisher of The Burrow:
‘How rare, this delicacy—this calm, sweet, desolated wisdom.’
Helen Garner
‘Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow is stupendously good. This is a novel that deals with the crucial elements of our lives—love and family and grief and guilt and responsibility—and does so without a whiff of sentimentality and does so fearlessly. As in real life, the characters keep surprising us. The power of The Burrow is in the unflinching yet empathetic command of the novelist, in the candid beauty of the language. It’s a remarkable work, nuanced and human and adult.’
Christos Tsiolkas
‘A beautiful book…Restrained and multifaceted…I couldn’t put it down.’
Pip Williams
‘An exquisite portrait of grief and the small things that save us. I was mesmerised.’
Shankari Chandran
‘Gulped it. I’ve been a Melanie Cheng fan since our first books came out. But this one is next level—it conveys so much human experience so sparingly that it seems to defy the laws of gravity. Stunning.’
Sarah Krasnostein
‘Such a fan of Melanie Cheng’s work. Quiet writing with such fierce emotion. This one’s another gift of a novel.’
Benjamin Law
‘A small pet rabbit takes on greater meaning in this tight, elegant story of a family quartet reckoning with grief. Melanie Cheng captures the claustrophobic, revelatory strangeness of the early days of the COVID lockdown while bravely mining complexities of human emotion—fear, guilt, anger, and love—in lovely, lucid prose that glitters throughout with cut stones of wisdom.’
Lauren Acampora, author of The Paper Wasp
‘The Burrow’s restrained prose and heartbreaking honesty capture the paradox of living with trauma, where the smallest of daily interactions are often the most debilitating. Yet despite dealing with such weighty material, The Burrow is an engrossing, compulsive, and uplifting read—a testimony to Cheng’s mastery of style and keen insight into human nature.’
Rajia Hassib, author of In the Language of Miracles
‘An elegant, tender story of grief, hope—and a pet rabbit...The narrative is deftly structured to reveal, gradually, the history of the family, while also analysing the minds and souls of its members with tenderness and compassion.’
Age
‘[A] quietly powerful novel…The reader will determine whether the mini lop in The Burrow is a catalyst for change or a silent observer of their evolving relationships…This novel is about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary suffering; Cheng handles them with sympathy and compassion, like you would a delicate mini lop.’
Sarah L’Estrange, ABC Arts
‘Beautiful. Just beautiful…So perfectly done, so spare, so astonishing, so poignant…I couldn’t recommend it more highly.’
Caroline Overington, Weekend Australian
‘Cheng is an elegant, unpretentious writer, carefully observant of the rhythms of ordinary human life—but when her imagination moves outside, into the natural world, The Burrow becomes something deeper, stranger, and truly beautiful.’
Oprah Daily
‘Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow is among those wonderful creations that continue their careful work long after the final page has been turned…The power of Cheng’s craft is found in a restraint that feels almost deceptive and certainly later reveals an artful layering…The Burrow recreates a feeling of false security in its pages. It is not until days after finishing Cheng’s work that you realise, with panic, that you’ve been afraid the whole time.’
2025 Stella Prize Judges
‘The metaphoric load on the rabbits in balanced by an intensely human story…[There are] many moments of joy, especially the joy of connections, and tricks of light and texture that make it dense with detail for the reader to linger and savour…A precisely constructed simplicity makes it a smooth, even quick read; a simplicity that enhances the depth of empathy and humanity in a tale of grief and rabbits.’
NZ Listener
‘[The Burrow] has already become one of my favourites of all time.’
Chris Gordon, Readings
‘The Burrow…skilfully brings coherence to its explorations of compassion, commitment, and suffering.’
Booklist
‘On the surface, [The Burrow] is a very quiet, understated book; but of course there is a lot going on beneath that surface, down in the burrow…Definitely recommended.’
Through the Biblioscope
‘The Burrow is truly exquisite. At its centre is a small fawn-coloured rabbit and a family tragedy that has left everyone scarred. The writing, and the world it evokes, has such tenderness and beauty. Line up and hand over your cash as soon as this one hits shelves.’
Irma Gold
‘A triumph of restrained and tender storytelling…A nuanced study of one family’s grief, but it’s also a magnificent portrait of modern loneliness.’
Books+Publishing
‘An absolutely beautiful book…It might be my novel of the year.’
Michael Williams, ABC RN The Bookshelf
‘Melanie Cheng's exquisite novel about a grieving family is a superb balance of unexpected laughter, surprising grace, and the ubiquitous human need for furry love.’
Shelf Awareness
‘[There’s] an incredible humanity in being a doctor, an incredible ability to read people…[The Burrow is] very moving, very beautifully done…Really admire this one.’
Claire Nichols, ABC RN Breakfast
‘A wonderful, engrossing novel.’
Michael Williams, Read This podcast
‘Melanie Cheng’s tender novella has stayed with me since I read it in a single setting…This book describes so much about how grief can push us apart then pull us back together; and the relationship between Lucie and Pauline is so warmly, vividly drawn that I couldn’t shake it.’
Steph Harmon, Best Books of 2024, Guardian
‘Cheng’s small but mighty story perfectly captures the disorientation and disarray that arrives with grief…Cheng could easily have written a dark story with no hope to be found. What she crafts instead is an accurate depiction of the rollercoaster of grief and how the little things can bring us light and hope…With one of the most beautiful covers I have seen in a while, The Burrow should not be overlooked.’
Stacey O’Carroll, Other Terrain Journal
‘4 stars. The Burrow packs in a lot of heightened and charged emotions. Cheng writes with characteristic sensitivity and empathy...It’s a quiet, reflective book, but all the more powerful for its understatedness...In this clear-eyed and unsentimental study, a chink of hope is allowed to shine through.’
ArtsHub
‘This beautifully contained and elegant novel resulted in me gasping for air…This visceral tale of one family—one bubble—will knock you over in the same way Helen Garner does with her writing...I fell in love with this complicated, cautious family...This novel is a gift.’
Chris Gordon, Readings
‘5 stars. Tender, restrained and thoughtful…[The Burrow] is beautiful, and I kept thinking about it after I finished it…An understated gem.’
Novel Feelings
‘A soft little bunny rabbit is at the centre of this family’s life as they navigate grief and the complexities of close intergenerational relationships…A quick pandemic novel based in Australia, with nostalgic mentions of Watership Down for good measure.’
WellRead
‘Gathers a delicate balance of modernity and the past...A quiet novel with moments that feel like they could explode…Reminds us how quickly life can change in an instant, whether you are a human or a rabbit.’
Book Muse
‘4 stars.’
Good Reading
‘4 stars. [Conveys] the ordinariness of the extraordinary…Things buried and unsaid are a life package, but so are love and hope and compassion. Softly, softly, the tale unfolds.’
Herald Sun
‘The book you should be reading…A heart-rending tale…Suffused with love and care.’
Qantas Magazine
‘A tender, compelling story of family and grief…Skilful and restrained…Artfully marries her narrative’s interfamilial disconnection with Covid’s inextricable qualities of isolation and distance…With a soft beauty, Melanie Cheng’s novel articulates quiet as stagnancy, one in which we feign security as we quarantine from ourselves and each other, down in the dark burrows of our minds.’
Guardian
‘[The Burrow] is bursting with insight and compassion, written from a place of deep understanding and kindness. Cheng has never been in finer form—delicate and nuanced, yet unafraid to face the horrors of ordinary life.’
Bram Presser
‘Packs an emotional punch and the moods shift like a conjurer’s act. It’s a wholly uplifting novel, and yet I can’t quite put my finger on why. Trust me, it’s extraordinary.’
Jaye Chin-Dusting, Mary Martin Bookshop
‘Cheng’s prose is simple and unadorned, but cuts directly to the heart of things: a single sentence can expose a world of truth.’
Big Issue
‘Cheng is a technically clever writer, maintaining [a] pleasing forward motion and light touch. That’s the true success of the book…Managing to draw out the ordinary everyday tragedies…It’s good writing that knows where it’s going, an increasingly rare quality.’
ABC RN The Bookshelf
‘I loved [The Burrow]. I was surprised by it…Read it all in one sitting. Melanie Cheng crafted [an] insular world so beautifully and with such an economy of language.’
Steph Harmon, culture editor of the Guardian
‘Melanie Cheng understands ordinary people—their love, their quiet desperation, their hope—and the restrained, elegant prose of The Burrow is testament to this. The novel is slim and each word is carefully chosen. It feels as if every sentence is a distillation…The feeling one gets when reading The Burrow echoes its title: one feels held and safe, as if one is in the hands of someone who knows exactly what they are doing.’
Saturday Paper
‘A quiet and moving story…With a compassionate eye for detail, this is an exquisite exploration of life.’
Collins Booksellers
‘Moving and masterful.’
BookPeople
‘Centring on themes of grief, love, guilt and grace, this story is wise, tender and triumphant.’
MS Magazine
‘Captivating and heart-wrenching family saga…Melanie Cheng perfectly captures the anxious hope that comes with a last-ditch effort for healing as well as the impending area that what is broken may not be fixed.’
Chicago Review of Books
‘[A] slim but deeply rendered exploration of a family reeling after the unthinkable happens…What’s so quietly devastating about The Burrow is just this very thing: the family slowly becoming known to themselves, each other and us. If only they would do X, Y or Z, everything would be better, we think as they go about their lives…We watch and wait for them to get there, holding out breath all the while.’
Star Tribune
‘Cheng explores with great sensitivity the complex emotions of each character, from guilt, regret and anger to self-loathing, and the impact of the tragedy on their various relationships.’
Good Weekend
‘8/10 stars. A short, sharp, poignant family drama.’
Pile by the Bed
‘Each character’s bond with the rabbit proves restorative…Readers will be moved.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Melanie Cheng’s novel The Burrow is the most moving book I have read all year, an exploration of grief both eloquently and elegantly told.’
Largehearted Boy
‘A slim but deeply rendered exploration of a family after the unthinkable happens…What’s so quietly devastating about The Burrow is just this very thing: the family slowly becoming known to themselves, each other and us…From a remove, like Fiver [the rabbit], we watch and wait for them to get there, holding our breath all the while.’
Herald
‘The pandemic book I didn’t know I needed…[The Burrow] explores how we make sense of tragedy in the absence of a religious worldview…Ultimately, [Melanie Cheng] leads us to an ending just unexpected enough to be satisfying, while simultaneously resisting the pull of a tidier resolution.’
Rumpus
‘My favourite book of the year...Beautifully written. It’s funny, it’s very, very moving, and it’s a beautifully finished novel.’
Jason Steger, ABC RN The Bookshelf, Best Books of 2024
‘[The Burrow] knows what it’s doing and it executes it with lovely precision and grace...Belongs in the great tradition of the Australian suburban domestic novel.’
Cassie McCullagh, ABC RN The Bookshelf, Best Books of 2024
‘This tiny, perfect novel by Melanie Cheng did so much with so little: one family, a rabbit, COVID and grief...A gorgeous piece of traditional novel writing.’
Claire Nichols, ABC News
‘I loved Melanie Cheng’s second novel, The Burrow, a tender and scrupulous look at a family dealing with grief and guilt...Cheng brings all her characters—including the rabbit—to life with crystal-clear writing. The Burrow is desperately moving.’
Jason Steger
‘I thought Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow was an exceptional novel from this year, a novel of exquisite simplicity and humanity.’
Christos Tsiolkas, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘An exquisite morsel of a book where each character is perfectly realised through their response to a shared grief.’
Pip Williams, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘The Burrow holds a note of calm in the face of terrible loss and emotional turbulence. I was engrossed by this sage, mature and beautifully written novel.’
Sofie Laguna, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘Melanie Cheng’s quietly devastating novella, The Burrow, lays bare the precarious balance of family life after unimaginable tragedy and might well be the best pandemic novel written.’
Bram Presser, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘The Burrow broke my heart and lifted it.’
Shankari Chandran, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘Cheng’s main achievement is that she has found the language to convey the way grief feels. Her writing provides a reminder that, when depicted with originality and skill, the movements of a character’s mind can provide all the narrative we need.’
Compulsive Reader
‘With almost as few brushstrokes as artist Phil Day used for the cover rabbit, Cheng has created characters who…embody the humanity of unspeakable grief, but who are so very individual at the same time. [The Burrow] is a great read, with an ending that captures hope and fragility at the same time.’
Whispering Gums
‘[Cheng’s] writing is so subtle, so delicate, you almost don’t realise the weight of what she’s building until it settles on your chest…The last line was so poignant and beautiful, lingering in my mind as I imagined the possible futures of these characters. It broke me and uplifted me at the same time.’
Murmur Library
‘The most moving book I have read all year, an exploration of grief both eloquently and elegantly told.’
David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
‘Perfectly executed.’
Amplify Bookstore
‘Currently on the long list for the Stella Prize, this brief story concerns a recently bereaved family and their adoption of a pet rabbit. Can’t say much about it other than it’s one of those Literary Fiction masterpieces that manages not to indulge in prose, but offer a startingly intimate portrayal of a family longing to hunker down and disappear. It’s beautiful and brilliant.’
David Burton
‘The Burrow is a powerful story of loss, survival and hope, despite its narrow scope and domestic setting. Cheng deftly illustrates "the shock and blows" that, as Lucie painfully discovers, are a part of life.’
Nicola Heath, ABC
‘I would recommend this book to anyone…I devoured and loved The Burrow.’
Letitia, Gleebooks
‘A restrained work of immense grace and compassion.’
Age Book of the Year Judges
‘I often find that I’m affected most by a story when it confronts what I have been avoiding myself. The reading is like a release of tension, a shared burden. Such was my experience with The Burrow...It forces us to wonder: Can something that is lost ever truly be gone?’
Cleaver Magazine
‘The Burrow is a deceptively small-canvas novel graced with an outsized wisdom.’
NetGalley reviewer
‘Cheng understood what it is to be human, to feel so much and so little all at the same time...Cheng masterfully investigates the juxtapositions of emotion...I would easily pick up the book again, and will be on the lookout for Cheng’s next book!’
NetGalley reviewer
‘An incredibly moving rendering of an ordinary family living an ordinary life with extraordinary moments…A quietly beautiful and tender tale.’
NetGalley reviewer
‘How rare, this delicacy—this calm, sweet, desolated wisdom.’
Helen Garner
‘Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow is stupendously good. This is a novel that deals with the crucial elements of our lives—love and family and grief and guilt and responsibility—and does so without a whiff of sentimentality and does so fearlessly. As in real life, the characters keep surprising us. The power of The Burrow is in the unflinching yet empathetic command of the novelist, in the candid beauty of the language. It’s a remarkable work, nuanced and human and adult.’
Christos Tsiolkas
‘A beautiful book…Restrained and multifaceted…I couldn’t put it down.’
Pip Williams
‘An exquisite portrait of grief and the small things that save us. I was mesmerised.’
Shankari Chandran
‘Gulped it. I’ve been a Melanie Cheng fan since our first books came out. But this one is next level—it conveys so much human experience so sparingly that it seems to defy the laws of gravity. Stunning.’
Sarah Krasnostein
‘Such a fan of Melanie Cheng’s work. Quiet writing with such fierce emotion. This one’s another gift of a novel.’
Benjamin Law
‘A small pet rabbit takes on greater meaning in this tight, elegant story of a family quartet reckoning with grief. Melanie Cheng captures the claustrophobic, revelatory strangeness of the early days of the COVID lockdown while bravely mining complexities of human emotion—fear, guilt, anger, and love—in lovely, lucid prose that glitters throughout with cut stones of wisdom.’
Lauren Acampora, author of The Paper Wasp
‘The Burrow’s restrained prose and heartbreaking honesty capture the paradox of living with trauma, where the smallest of daily interactions are often the most debilitating. Yet despite dealing with such weighty material, The Burrow is an engrossing, compulsive, and uplifting read—a testimony to Cheng’s mastery of style and keen insight into human nature.’
Rajia Hassib, author of In the Language of Miracles
‘An elegant, tender story of grief, hope—and a pet rabbit...The narrative is deftly structured to reveal, gradually, the history of the family, while also analysing the minds and souls of its members with tenderness and compassion.’
Age
‘[A] quietly powerful novel…The reader will determine whether the mini lop in The Burrow is a catalyst for change or a silent observer of their evolving relationships…This novel is about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary suffering; Cheng handles them with sympathy and compassion, like you would a delicate mini lop.’
Sarah L’Estrange, ABC Arts
‘Beautiful. Just beautiful…So perfectly done, so spare, so astonishing, so poignant…I couldn’t recommend it more highly.’
Caroline Overington, Weekend Australian
‘Cheng is an elegant, unpretentious writer, carefully observant of the rhythms of ordinary human life—but when her imagination moves outside, into the natural world, The Burrow becomes something deeper, stranger, and truly beautiful.’
Oprah Daily
‘Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow is among those wonderful creations that continue their careful work long after the final page has been turned…The power of Cheng’s craft is found in a restraint that feels almost deceptive and certainly later reveals an artful layering…The Burrow recreates a feeling of false security in its pages. It is not until days after finishing Cheng’s work that you realise, with panic, that you’ve been afraid the whole time.’
2025 Stella Prize Judges
‘The metaphoric load on the rabbits in balanced by an intensely human story…[There are] many moments of joy, especially the joy of connections, and tricks of light and texture that make it dense with detail for the reader to linger and savour…A precisely constructed simplicity makes it a smooth, even quick read; a simplicity that enhances the depth of empathy and humanity in a tale of grief and rabbits.’
NZ Listener
‘[The Burrow] has already become one of my favourites of all time.’
Chris Gordon, Readings
‘The Burrow…skilfully brings coherence to its explorations of compassion, commitment, and suffering.’
Booklist
‘On the surface, [The Burrow] is a very quiet, understated book; but of course there is a lot going on beneath that surface, down in the burrow…Definitely recommended.’
Through the Biblioscope
‘The Burrow is truly exquisite. At its centre is a small fawn-coloured rabbit and a family tragedy that has left everyone scarred. The writing, and the world it evokes, has such tenderness and beauty. Line up and hand over your cash as soon as this one hits shelves.’
Irma Gold
‘A triumph of restrained and tender storytelling…A nuanced study of one family’s grief, but it’s also a magnificent portrait of modern loneliness.’
Books+Publishing
‘An absolutely beautiful book…It might be my novel of the year.’
Michael Williams, ABC RN The Bookshelf
‘Melanie Cheng's exquisite novel about a grieving family is a superb balance of unexpected laughter, surprising grace, and the ubiquitous human need for furry love.’
Shelf Awareness
‘[There’s] an incredible humanity in being a doctor, an incredible ability to read people…[The Burrow is] very moving, very beautifully done…Really admire this one.’
Claire Nichols, ABC RN Breakfast
‘A wonderful, engrossing novel.’
Michael Williams, Read This podcast
‘Melanie Cheng’s tender novella has stayed with me since I read it in a single setting…This book describes so much about how grief can push us apart then pull us back together; and the relationship between Lucie and Pauline is so warmly, vividly drawn that I couldn’t shake it.’
Steph Harmon, Best Books of 2024, Guardian
‘Cheng’s small but mighty story perfectly captures the disorientation and disarray that arrives with grief…Cheng could easily have written a dark story with no hope to be found. What she crafts instead is an accurate depiction of the rollercoaster of grief and how the little things can bring us light and hope…With one of the most beautiful covers I have seen in a while, The Burrow should not be overlooked.’
Stacey O’Carroll, Other Terrain Journal
‘4 stars. The Burrow packs in a lot of heightened and charged emotions. Cheng writes with characteristic sensitivity and empathy...It’s a quiet, reflective book, but all the more powerful for its understatedness...In this clear-eyed and unsentimental study, a chink of hope is allowed to shine through.’
ArtsHub
‘This beautifully contained and elegant novel resulted in me gasping for air…This visceral tale of one family—one bubble—will knock you over in the same way Helen Garner does with her writing...I fell in love with this complicated, cautious family...This novel is a gift.’
Chris Gordon, Readings
‘5 stars. Tender, restrained and thoughtful…[The Burrow] is beautiful, and I kept thinking about it after I finished it…An understated gem.’
Novel Feelings
‘A soft little bunny rabbit is at the centre of this family’s life as they navigate grief and the complexities of close intergenerational relationships…A quick pandemic novel based in Australia, with nostalgic mentions of Watership Down for good measure.’
WellRead
‘Gathers a delicate balance of modernity and the past...A quiet novel with moments that feel like they could explode…Reminds us how quickly life can change in an instant, whether you are a human or a rabbit.’
Book Muse
‘4 stars.’
Good Reading
‘4 stars. [Conveys] the ordinariness of the extraordinary…Things buried and unsaid are a life package, but so are love and hope and compassion. Softly, softly, the tale unfolds.’
Herald Sun
‘The book you should be reading…A heart-rending tale…Suffused with love and care.’
Qantas Magazine
‘A tender, compelling story of family and grief…Skilful and restrained…Artfully marries her narrative’s interfamilial disconnection with Covid’s inextricable qualities of isolation and distance…With a soft beauty, Melanie Cheng’s novel articulates quiet as stagnancy, one in which we feign security as we quarantine from ourselves and each other, down in the dark burrows of our minds.’
Guardian
‘[The Burrow] is bursting with insight and compassion, written from a place of deep understanding and kindness. Cheng has never been in finer form—delicate and nuanced, yet unafraid to face the horrors of ordinary life.’
Bram Presser
‘Packs an emotional punch and the moods shift like a conjurer’s act. It’s a wholly uplifting novel, and yet I can’t quite put my finger on why. Trust me, it’s extraordinary.’
Jaye Chin-Dusting, Mary Martin Bookshop
‘Cheng’s prose is simple and unadorned, but cuts directly to the heart of things: a single sentence can expose a world of truth.’
Big Issue
‘Cheng is a technically clever writer, maintaining [a] pleasing forward motion and light touch. That’s the true success of the book…Managing to draw out the ordinary everyday tragedies…It’s good writing that knows where it’s going, an increasingly rare quality.’
ABC RN The Bookshelf
‘I loved [The Burrow]. I was surprised by it…Read it all in one sitting. Melanie Cheng crafted [an] insular world so beautifully and with such an economy of language.’
Steph Harmon, culture editor of the Guardian
‘Melanie Cheng understands ordinary people—their love, their quiet desperation, their hope—and the restrained, elegant prose of The Burrow is testament to this. The novel is slim and each word is carefully chosen. It feels as if every sentence is a distillation…The feeling one gets when reading The Burrow echoes its title: one feels held and safe, as if one is in the hands of someone who knows exactly what they are doing.’
Saturday Paper
‘A quiet and moving story…With a compassionate eye for detail, this is an exquisite exploration of life.’
Collins Booksellers
‘Moving and masterful.’
BookPeople
‘Centring on themes of grief, love, guilt and grace, this story is wise, tender and triumphant.’
MS Magazine
‘Captivating and heart-wrenching family saga…Melanie Cheng perfectly captures the anxious hope that comes with a last-ditch effort for healing as well as the impending area that what is broken may not be fixed.’
Chicago Review of Books
‘[A] slim but deeply rendered exploration of a family reeling after the unthinkable happens…What’s so quietly devastating about The Burrow is just this very thing: the family slowly becoming known to themselves, each other and us. If only they would do X, Y or Z, everything would be better, we think as they go about their lives…We watch and wait for them to get there, holding out breath all the while.’
Star Tribune
‘Cheng explores with great sensitivity the complex emotions of each character, from guilt, regret and anger to self-loathing, and the impact of the tragedy on their various relationships.’
Good Weekend
‘8/10 stars. A short, sharp, poignant family drama.’
Pile by the Bed
‘Each character’s bond with the rabbit proves restorative…Readers will be moved.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Melanie Cheng’s novel The Burrow is the most moving book I have read all year, an exploration of grief both eloquently and elegantly told.’
Largehearted Boy
‘A slim but deeply rendered exploration of a family after the unthinkable happens…What’s so quietly devastating about The Burrow is just this very thing: the family slowly becoming known to themselves, each other and us…From a remove, like Fiver [the rabbit], we watch and wait for them to get there, holding our breath all the while.’
Herald
‘The pandemic book I didn’t know I needed…[The Burrow] explores how we make sense of tragedy in the absence of a religious worldview…Ultimately, [Melanie Cheng] leads us to an ending just unexpected enough to be satisfying, while simultaneously resisting the pull of a tidier resolution.’
Rumpus
‘My favourite book of the year...Beautifully written. It’s funny, it’s very, very moving, and it’s a beautifully finished novel.’
Jason Steger, ABC RN The Bookshelf, Best Books of 2024
‘[The Burrow] knows what it’s doing and it executes it with lovely precision and grace...Belongs in the great tradition of the Australian suburban domestic novel.’
Cassie McCullagh, ABC RN The Bookshelf, Best Books of 2024
‘This tiny, perfect novel by Melanie Cheng did so much with so little: one family, a rabbit, COVID and grief...A gorgeous piece of traditional novel writing.’
Claire Nichols, ABC News
‘I loved Melanie Cheng’s second novel, The Burrow, a tender and scrupulous look at a family dealing with grief and guilt...Cheng brings all her characters—including the rabbit—to life with crystal-clear writing. The Burrow is desperately moving.’
Jason Steger
‘I thought Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow was an exceptional novel from this year, a novel of exquisite simplicity and humanity.’
Christos Tsiolkas, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘An exquisite morsel of a book where each character is perfectly realised through their response to a shared grief.’
Pip Williams, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘The Burrow holds a note of calm in the face of terrible loss and emotional turbulence. I was engrossed by this sage, mature and beautifully written novel.’
Sofie Laguna, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘Melanie Cheng’s quietly devastating novella, The Burrow, lays bare the precarious balance of family life after unimaginable tragedy and might well be the best pandemic novel written.’
Bram Presser, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘The Burrow broke my heart and lifted it.’
Shankari Chandran, Best Books of 2024, Spectrum
‘Cheng’s main achievement is that she has found the language to convey the way grief feels. Her writing provides a reminder that, when depicted with originality and skill, the movements of a character’s mind can provide all the narrative we need.’
Compulsive Reader
‘With almost as few brushstrokes as artist Phil Day used for the cover rabbit, Cheng has created characters who…embody the humanity of unspeakable grief, but who are so very individual at the same time. [The Burrow] is a great read, with an ending that captures hope and fragility at the same time.’
Whispering Gums
‘[Cheng’s] writing is so subtle, so delicate, you almost don’t realise the weight of what she’s building until it settles on your chest…The last line was so poignant and beautiful, lingering in my mind as I imagined the possible futures of these characters. It broke me and uplifted me at the same time.’
Murmur Library
‘The most moving book I have read all year, an exploration of grief both eloquently and elegantly told.’
David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
‘Perfectly executed.’
Amplify Bookstore
‘Currently on the long list for the Stella Prize, this brief story concerns a recently bereaved family and their adoption of a pet rabbit. Can’t say much about it other than it’s one of those Literary Fiction masterpieces that manages not to indulge in prose, but offer a startingly intimate portrayal of a family longing to hunker down and disappear. It’s beautiful and brilliant.’
David Burton
‘The Burrow is a powerful story of loss, survival and hope, despite its narrow scope and domestic setting. Cheng deftly illustrates "the shock and blows" that, as Lucie painfully discovers, are a part of life.’
Nicola Heath, ABC
‘I would recommend this book to anyone…I devoured and loved The Burrow.’
Letitia, Gleebooks
‘A restrained work of immense grace and compassion.’
Age Book of the Year Judges
‘I often find that I’m affected most by a story when it confronts what I have been avoiding myself. The reading is like a release of tension, a shared burden. Such was my experience with The Burrow...It forces us to wonder: Can something that is lost ever truly be gone?’
Cleaver Magazine
‘The Burrow is a deceptively small-canvas novel graced with an outsized wisdom.’
NetGalley reviewer
‘Cheng understood what it is to be human, to feel so much and so little all at the same time...Cheng masterfully investigates the juxtapositions of emotion...I would easily pick up the book again, and will be on the lookout for Cheng’s next book!’
NetGalley reviewer
‘An incredibly moving rendering of an ordinary family living an ordinary life with extraordinary moments…A quietly beautiful and tender tale.’
NetGalley reviewer
January 25, 2025
An intimate glimpse into the isolation of grief within a family after a traumatic loss.
https://youtube.com/@chanelchapters
https://youtube.com/@chanelchapters
April 15, 2025
No notes. Freaking amazing!
June 3, 2025
Absolutely adored this novella. Grief, regrets & reignited connection traverse through this small novel, wrapped all together by the presence of Fiver, the rabbit. A very endearing read that packs a punch.
March 2, 2025
Wonderful little audio book, I found it so tender and touching and a remarkable treatise on grief. A family and their own personalities and connections explored deftly through different members. And I thought the 9 yo girl was treated with respect and not stereotyped or patronised. Sad and profound story skilfully told
June 29, 2025
A beautiful and simple story. I feel this should be added to the school curriculum for kids to appreciate and analyse 🤓
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