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: Fiction, Poetry

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 12, 2026

Reviews

[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 ❀

[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.

[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

[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

[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.

[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.

[victoria marie]

Not yet published • Expected 12 Mar 26

[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