RABBITBOX

by Wayne Holloway-Smith

A transfixing, heart-rending work which follows a mother and her young son living under the shadow of an all-consuming domestic threat, by T. S. Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet Wayne Holloway-Smith.

24 Coalbrook Street. The house is trembling with a father's anger. It makes a rabbit of a young boy, sends him burrowing into a wardrobe, and leaves his mother standing hapless and mute over the kitchen sink. In this house, how far can a mother’s comfort travel?

From the safety of his hiding place, from the magnitude of his fear, a young girl appears offering a way out. Taking him by the hand, reaching through time, she leads him elsewhere; a mother’s love dreaming him away from their reality to the promise – beautiful yet flickering – of a river.

Haunting, precise and tender, RABBITBOX heralds a major new work from one of Britain's most exciting writers.

--

‘It takes a rare poet to make such magic of such brutality, but Holloway-Smith is the rarest tender, curious, vivid, and wild. He bunches language like a fist, one that unravels into shadow butterflies, the idea of escape...

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2026

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both beautiful and devastating, award-winning, British poet Wayne Holloway-Smith’s novella-in-verse centres on a fractured family. It’s a haunting exploration of domestic violence witnessed by a small boy. But it’s also an incredibly tender portrait of the intimate bonds formed between the boy and his mother. Holloway-Smith blends realism with fantasy and fairy tale imagery – partly inspired by Clarice Lispector’s The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit and queer poet Joe Pintauro’s surreal children’s story for adults The Rabbit Box. Weeks in the boy’s home follow a pattern that’s become all too familiar, his dad gets home from his building work to his flinching mum; then his ogre-like dad abuses and berates her while the boy hides in his wardrobe, hands covering his ears.

But the boy’s sustained by the power of imagination. His head’s filled with characters and images from stories his mother read to him, stories which offer up the possibility of escaping like a lithe rabbit racing away through fields. Holloway-Smith’s arresting narrative incorporates flashbacks chronicling the mother’s past, her excitement, the romantic dreams sparked by meeting the boy's future dad at a dance - when she was just fifteen. Later forced into marriage when she finds out she’s pregnant. All of which highlight the intense social and economic pressures that can shape the lives of girls and women like her. Holloway-Smith sutures disparate elements of his story together through the use of repeated phrases, passages echo Pintauro and Lispector, others bear the traces of wider cultural influences like the play on lines taken from The Smith’s “Still Ill.” A series of scenes consist only of a heading, white space suggests trauma, memories too difficult to confront or too complex to adequately represent. The reader’s left to fill in the gaps. Overall, a powerful, memorable piece.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Scribner Editions

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a book that leaves indelible mark upon you; the subject and power of the content stays and keeps returning. Rabbitbox is such a book.

Wayne Holloway-Smith has written a book of such immense intensity and also" beauty". This is a book about domestic violence ; the abuse towards a mother and son by a drunken husband and father. How can a word such as beauty be used in this context ?

This is poetry that digs deep in to the lives of the mother and son and explores their raw emotions- the fear and violence but also the times of peace and calm- the sanctuaries they escape to for inner quiet and safety and this where the beauty of the prose pulls our feelings deeply as we know that there are moments of respite and tranquility amidst the 'eggshell' fear as moments can change in a second. ( tiptoeing around a drunken sleeping man)

This is a book that needs reading. Wayne Holloway-Smith's attention to the minutiae of life are magnified in their detail and power and the impact is incredible and somehow tender.

The place of safety for the boy is a wardrobe where he 'imagines' a young girl who by simply holding his hand aids a sense of escape out into the garden and beyond to water- she is his safety mechanism. Our feelings are longing for the young child and his mother to find an escape

I read this book twice and each time pausing after certain sections to breathe and reflect . This is a book that deserves attention and plaudits. One of the top reads for 2026 - no question ! And deservedly so.

Rabbitbox is shocking, tender, heart-breaking and so so powerful. Superb and highly recommended

Thank you to Scribner publishers and NetGalley for the advance read

[❀ Tia ❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

| ARC REVIEW |

⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️
▸ Domestic violence
▸ Abusive husband and father
▸ Excessive alcohol consumption

RABBITBOX is a poetic masterpiece, utilising the art of the long-sentence to depict the brutal realities of a mother and son living under the thumb of an abusive husband and father.

This was a poignantly written book: every raw emotion was encapsulated in a powerful, truthful and intensely thought-provoking manner — from the ferocity of a mother's love and the guilt that can often coexist with this, to the fear from both a child's and an adult's perspective.

However, there were also times of peace throughout this book, such as the times of the mother's hope and longing for a calmer life, and the son's maladaptive daydreaming used as a form of escapism from the abuse. Several times I found myself dreading the end of these more peaceful verses as I knew the father would soon be making another appearance — likely mirroring the mother and son's own dread regarding his arrival home.

I found the repeated reminder of there being "no photos" an interesting element in this book. — There are no photos that serve as a reminder of the events, but the memories are a reminder likely more vivid than any camera could ever capture.

"The mind recalls" — and that it did. It recalled. It dwelled. It repressed. And then it recalled again.

This book has made a lasting impression on me; one in which I was expecting, but not quite expecting to this extent. Bravo to you, Mr. Holloway-Smith!

Thank you to NetGalley, Wayne Holloway-Smith, and Simon & Schuster UK | Scribner UK for gifting this eBook in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

❀ Tia ❀

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

from The Rabbit Box by Joseph Pintauro


from The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit by Clarice Lispector, translated by Benjamin Moser and illustrated by Kammal João

SHADOWGRAPHY

imagine the mind is a single wall and memory a single light shone directly onto its two-dimensional surface

imagine the mind's walled
surface and its singular beam of light constructs a type of ocular theatre in which all memory can be performed

could be the whirring back-
ground noise is an old projector - its skittishness inferring perhaps the nervousness on the part of the narrator here, seeking, as he is, an alternative way to articulate the thing he needs to say

imagine the theatre of the mind with its two-dimensional surface and its moon-like light, with the nervy projector in the background, are the conditions into which a story can be induced through use of silhouette

and know the use of silhouette - a vocabulary itself, in part, of absence, a blocking out, in part, of light - is a way this story doesn't have to look itself directly in the eye

Exquisite and heart-breaking and surely nailed on for the Booker Prize longlist and beyond

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

RABBITBOX by the poet Wayne Holloway-Smith is an absolute tour-de-force, a beautiful, yet brutal, story of a young boy and his mother living under the violence of a man supposed to care for them. This absolutely floored me - it so vividly real, so truthful. It is a work which made me care deeply for the boy and his mother - and fear the father's appearance. Despite the brutality there is tenderness here, warmth and real honesty. Five stars from me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[Florence Unwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when I get to be blown away by writing. This had me sick with fear and completely wrapped in its images. The Shadowgraphy was unbelievably effective, nothing felt contrived. Such tender, vulnerable poetry in the face of dread and childhood that you feel bruised on finishing it.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic dissociation

[Tom Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard book to distil into a short review, RABBITBOX by Wayne Holloway-Smith is undoubtedly a prose novel that will feature on future literary prizes in the UK. It has the lyrical whimsy of a Max Porter novel, but also the striking emotional resonance of an Ocean Vuong poem. Holloway-Smith moves you and confronts the perspective of children faced with the scary foe that can often be a parent. The considered playing of form and language is smart and compelling. This is a book I’ll need to revisit and discuss with other people.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every now and then, you pick up a book that defies all the usual rules of storytelling, and Rabbitbox is definitely one of those. It’s a very short, highly unusual novel that is written much more like a continuous, book-length poem than a traditional story.

Because it’s so experimental, it is bound to be a real 'Marmite' book—some readers will absolutely adore the unique style, while others might find it a bit too out-of-the-ordinary to get along with.

The heart of the book follows a young boy and his mother living in a deeply tense household, completely overshadowed by a violent, threatening father. Wayne Holloway-Smith does a remarkable job of building an immediate sense of foreboding and unease right from the opening pages. You can truly feel the heavy anxiety in the house as the boy tries to find ways to escape into his own imagination to cope with the reality around him.

However, while I could really appreciate the powerful atmosphere and the sheer craft behind the writing, I personally struggled to find a solid storyline to sink my teeth into. Because the style is so abstract and poetic, it felt quite difficult to step inside the world and truly get to know the characters on a deeper level. Without that traditional narrative pull, I found myself admiring the cleverness of the prose from a distance rather than feeling fully swept away by it.

Ultimately, if you enjoy highly lyrical, boundary-pushing literary fiction that explores tough themes through beautiful imagery, this could be a real masterpiece for you. But for me, while it had some deeply moving moments, it just didn't quite click as a narrative.

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

i didn’t really know what to expect when i started reading RABBITBOX. i’d group it with GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS and OPEN THROAT — a poem-as-novel that is a precise but often abstrqct excavation of a feeling

RABBITBOX follows a young boy and his mother trapped in an abusive home, their only reprieves from violence and fear is her daydreaming into the past and his shelter in the wardrobe. the plot is, i think purposely, a little unclear — the boy has an imaginary friend named Alma who comforts him, but i think this could also be his mother as a child. they seem to escape the house and play by a river, but even that potentially only a dream. the narrator, too, is shrouded — is it the boy, the father, someone omniscient?

Holloway-Smith’s writing is moving and tender, and my favourite parts were when the narrator describes the action as shown through a film projector or as shadow puppets on a wall. a really beautiful, evocative technique

RABBITBOX has a dreamy and, at times, nightmarish quality to it, and i think i need to read it again to really grasp it. it’s powerful and it’s sad

thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC

[Ann Myhre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg skulle ønske jeg kunne gi denne boka topp karakterer, den er helt nydelig. Og jeg har lest den to ganger i dag og tror nok jeg vil lese denne enda flere ganger.

Problemet er at historien er veldig konvensjonell. Ei ung jente blir gravid med en ikke så veldig mye eldre gutt, og det fører til et trist liv, både for barnet som kommer til verden med barn til foreldre, og for mora som blir mishandla og faren som tar til flaska. Det er liksom ørtende episode av The River.

Språklig minner boka om A Room Above a Shop av Anthony Shapland. Men minner, det det blir for enkelt og for unyansert. Begge bøkene er skrevet i et svært poetisk språk med heftige bilder, men akkurat det kan man si om så mange bøker. Kanskje det at språket er boka, er rettere å si?

Boka er bare over ei time lang som lydbok så det har ikke vært noen stor bedrift å lytte til den to ganger i dag.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kindly sent a free, uncorrected proof copy of this book by the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This is quite an experimental poetic novella on the topic of the trauma of domestic violence involving children. It was my first experience of reading a poem-as-novel and I’m not sure how I feel about it really. The writing was certainly moving and bittersweet and the subject matter itself is obviously very powerful. For me this felt like dream reading and quite a surreal but intense experience. I think the book needs to be read multiple times in order to be truly understood. There is just so much conveyed in so few words that it requires a lot of digestion. There are a lot of gaps which the reader has to fill in for themselves - although this admittedly adds further emphasis to the trauma of the domestic violence, I was frequently left second-guessing myself and what the book was trying to say. Wayne Holloway-Smith has great talent, but this was a bit overwhelming for me. 3 stars

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Rabbitbox is a bit of an experimental novella, revealing the story of a mother and her young son living under the threat of domestic violence. Snippets of the past are slowly revealed, emphasising how this life was never the one planned or chosen. When the mother met her husband she was charmed and enraptured, full of hope and possibility. And then. Change.

More fragments of the present are interspersed with fear juxtaposed with magic. There are hints of peace and serenity; a calming river, a mother’s love. It’s a sharp and vivid contrast to the ugliness and rage emanating from the angry father.

Set out in poetic verse it’s certainly an interesting and contemplative book. I’m not entirely sure I understood everything, with poetry you need to read between the lines and I feel that I’d probably benefit from reading it again

[Jamad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayne Holloway-Smith writes with the precision of a poet,
pushing language until it bruises,
then loosening it until it trembles,
fear made physical, tenderness made visible.

I saw terror in the bright eyes of the boy,
and devotion in the worn hands of the mother,
and felt each breath of the story like wind
against the fragile ember of hope.

Rabbitbox does not look away.
It digs into bone,
yet finds beneath that bone a gentleness
that refuses to die.

Haunting, exact, unforgettable,
a reckoning and a dream of escape.

Five stars.
Brutal and brilliant.

[Emma-Louise McGill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read anything like this before and so the formatting took me by surprise but in a good way!

For such a heart wrenching topic, the beautiful poetry that Wayne Holloway-Smith mirrors in his various formats was tragically beautiful.

This is a book you can read again and again and take something new from it each time.

Thank you Scribner for the early proof!

[Gail Edwards Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rabbitbox is honest and powerful. It captures, in real detail, the threat and impact of domestic violence as it narrates the story of a child and his mother. There is fear for them, and incredible sadness but also hope in their relationship. This is not an easy read but it is definitely worth it.

[Spacey Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A stunning piece of prose that follows a mother and son living under threat of their abuser at home. Beautifully written if not a little confusing (but I might be dumb).

Thank you to scribner UK for a proof copy.

[mrsbookburnee Niamh Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful but hard read, showing the impact of domestic violence within a family, especially the young son. This brought so many emotions from wistfulness for the want of a different life, protection towards the boy and anger at the father.

The author/poet has used long sentence brilliantly portray this story, it’s a hard read but one that I would recommend.

[Molly Gascoyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - this definitely pulled at the heart strings. Dark, intense but beautifully written. A great read

[Danielle Moylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this.

[SJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

🐇❤️‍🩹

[han · Rating 5 out of 5]

a truly heartbreaking poetry-esque style of writing. truly gut wrenching work about abuse but absolutely written from the soul, this is incredible

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

24 Coalbrook Street
and the mind caught between its layers of wallpaper
or the mind pulled like carpet across the floor
boards creaked and cranking grey
 
immaculate horrible carpet stretched over a home
grown badly and filled up with thinking –
 
he sat THERE, it says, broiling in his bitter dad
chair and the mother, she sat THERE, the mind says
without daring a look back over her shoulder
the TV on the washing out the whole house
holding its breath
 
and it’s here perhaps the rabbit
was made and each time made again
in the moments before
all the shattering what-comes-next

 
The author is best known for his prize winning and listed poetry (his second collection having being shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize) and for his role as Editor of The Poetry Review, and this his debut novella draws heavily on the poetic form.
 
With two poets on the Booker Prize jury this year I have been on the lookout for literary novels written by poets, and in this case the novel is enthusiastically blurbed by one of the judges; Raymond Antrobus saying “This book is amazing. Imagine a poetry version of DH Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers blended with Han Kang's novella, The White Book. That could be said of Wayne Holloway-Smith's latest offering, RABBITBOX. Holloway-Smith is more than a talented poet, he's a gifted phrase-maker. RABBITBOX is a lyrically ambitious and powerfully evocative book on trauma and family. Truly a feat.'
 
A blurb which is refreshingly specific.  In my views the use of white space is indeed very reminiscent of Han Kang, the comparison to Lawrence’s novel a little more superficial in its set up as a young boy drawn close to a mother who is a victim of domestic violence – although here that is the focus of a novel – but the poetic form renders the novella distinctive from both and the author explicitly draws on another inspiration – the Spring book in Joseph Pintauro’s 1970s illustrated box set of seasonal children’s books for adults “The Rainbow Box” (both title and cover of this book I believe taken from that).
 
This novella uses a fragmentary, poetic, allusion-based approach to effectively address a difficult subject – domestic violence directed against both a wife and a young child – in a way which builds up the story over time and relies on the reader to complete the gaps.
 
My interpretation is as follows:
 
In a small house (24 Coalbrook Street – pretty well the only signifier of time and place we get) a woman and her young son live with the father who on his return from his daily work at a building site rules the house with his judgmental anger which often erupts into physical violence, fuelled by alcohol. 
 
The mother takes refuge in trying to make herself as inconspicuous and inoffensive as possible – as she thinks back on how she came to where she is now (a teenage pregnancy, parents who declared she had made her bed and better lie in) and the predicament she is in (where even her bed is no longer a refuge, with an alcohol soused husband demanding conjugal rights).
 
The son in burrowing himself in the clothes of a wardrobe while the worst incidents are occurring.
 
But both in a series of bedtime stories the mother spins for the child in which he is a rabbit and has a young girl Alma as a friend (possibly in the mother’s imagination her own childhood self) and the two hold hands and sneak past the slumbering giant of a father to scape to a beautiful riverside.
 
The book relies brilliantly on repeated motifs and phrases: rhetorical sections headed “A QUESTION”, the repeated phrases “there exists no photo that ..” and “for how long can ..”, a sbravura ection of passages where the flight of girl and rabbit is viewed as though in silhouettes (even as the cover of the book implies shadow puppetry) and so on.
 
Overall I found this an really powerful and moving novel and definitely a Booker contender other than it may be considered too short by some of the judges. Nevertheless highly recommended and perhaps a Goldsmith Prize contender if it does not make the Booker.
 
My thanks to Simon and Schuster, Scribner for an ARC via NetGalley
 

how far can a mother’s comfort travel
echoing in that present tense
were you worried
into being
his buck teeth
your name, Alma
thrown against
the skin
of his shut
lips
 
simple as wanting –
 
the mother before the home fell
truly into all its bad
the mind recalls
the tender arms she had
when he’d be ready for sleep
she’d lull him to the magic of a riverbed –
the story of a young rabbit

[Sarah Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very unusual short novel written really in the form of a very long poem
The story tells of small boy living in a household with a violent father
This novel will no doubt have its lovers it’s one of those marmite books love it or hate it hate. I didn’t really manage to enjoy it there are some great bits and a feeling of tension and foreboding from the very beginning that I really couldn’t find a story in here to get my teeth into . I couldn’t really get to know the characters well enough to feel for them.
I read a copy of the novel early on NetGalley UK in return for an honest review. The book has published on the 12th of March 2026 by Simon and Schuster UK.

This review will appear on Goodreads, NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, and my book blog bionicSarahSbooks.wordpress.com
After publication, it will also appear on Amazon and Waterstones online

[Chris Paget · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

✅: Unique writing style akin to spoken word poetry which flows effortlessly, casting radiant light and malevolent shadow as the story demands. The descriptions of his father are particularly powerful, masterfully creating a looming unstable presence that feels visceral.
❌: Definitely requires a re-read to fully appreciate the beauty of the prose and its subtleties. Poetic style can make the plot elements tricky to unpick. Not the most accessible choice of writing - this is helped by the audiobook by the author but not everyone can or will choose this route.