Lucky Bunny

September 3, 2012
Dawson’s engaging seventh novel (after Trick of the Light) chronicles the exploits of “Queenie” Dove, a highly intelligent Depression-era child from a family of grifters. As a child in London, Queenie acknowledges her fledgling conscience, but muses, “The world is full of milk on doorsteps. And bread left by the baker’s vans, and coal from the coal man.” The girl’s education begins in earnest at age 12 after a group of established female crooks, who knew Queenie’s mum, introduce her to crafty means of attaining what she can’t afford. After a short time thieving, during which she changes schools and makes a new friend, she surpasses her felonious teachers, though not without suffering some consequences along the way. But when Queenie discovers that she’s pregnant, she begins to examine the life she’s built with her violent, criminal boyfriend. Still, the lure of the ruse calls to Queenie even as she imagines the future she will provide for her child. Dawson shows great skill in rendering a fully realized, winning character in this story of a young woman determined to recreate herself after a heartbreaking childhood. Agent: Caroline Dawnay, United Agents, U.K.

September 1, 2012
Born in London's East End during the Great Depression, Queenie Dove learned early from her small-time hood father and alcoholic mother to look out for herself. Though she has an IQ of 180, she sees more value in stealing than in studying, especially when there is no food in the house. She begins stealing milk from the neighbor's porch and graduates to shoplifting under the tutelage of the Green Bottle girls, professionals in more than one line of work. The jobs get bigger and more lucrative and the prison stays longer. But when Queenie has a daughter of her own, she decides she wants a different life and risks one more job to buy it. Told through Queenie's singular voice and worldview, Lucky Bunny tells a side of WWII and its aftermath in Britain not often told, with endless rationing, poverty, and rubble. With a nod to Moll Flanders, Dawson creates a colorfully diverse group of characters that beg for your sympathy but don't always get it. But you won't soon forget them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)