I have to admit that it was the title that drew me to this book. The idea that God, for a time at least, might have been a rabbit intrigued me much more than the blurb which didn’t really seem to summarise the plot, but having read the book, I now understand that this was something of an impossible task.

Narrated by Elly, When God was a Rabbit  follows her family and their friends from 70s suburbia to the early years of the 21^st century. Though deeply concerned with the relationship between Elly and her older brother Joe, who she idolizes, it also observes the family’s wider relationships with a colourful array of characters with a curious mixture of dark humour and crushing pathos as they live through nativity plays, pool winnings and the aftermath of 9/11.

Though the plot of the novel is loose, perhaps best described as a group bildungsroman which has wandered into the terrain of magic realism, the novel is glued together though vivid characterisation and the plot’s momentum is driven by their responses to the situations in which they find themselves. Just a smattering of characters you should look out for include Jenny Penny, a gritty urban Pippy Longstocking; Nancy, the lesbian actress aunt who is deeply in love with her brother’s wife; Arthur Henry, a retired academic/diplomat who knows the precise moment he will die and has budgeted accordingly; and of course, God, the eponymous rabbit.

Without wanting to sound too much like a stock blurb, this is an epic story of family, but above all friendship, which runs the gamut between happiness and heartbreak, innocence lost and absolution found, and all the while you will be laughing and crying along with the characters. Even if you are on an aeroplane and attempting to maintain some composure, you won’t be able to. You’ll get lost in the story. Read it, read it or you will never truly appreciate how good it is.