The Burrow by Melanie Cheng

Melanie Cheng’s novel The Burrow takes readers back to the last few months of the pandemic to deliver a short, sharp, poignant family drama.

The Burrow opens with Jin and Amy buying a pet rabbit for their daughter Lucie. There is clearly a strain between the parents, a tragedy that hangs in the air, that they are partly trying to assuage with this act. Not long after Amy’s mother Pauline breaks her wrist and much to Amy’s dismay is forced to live with the family. Again, there are things unsaid, buried family trauma that has infected Amy and Jin’s relationship with Pauline.

Through this novella, Cheng slowly reveals the tragedy that sits in the middle of this family as each member is finally forced to confront and come to terms with it. Cheng shows great economy as she explores how each of these four characters develops over the course of the story. And she does this not only through their thoughts and reminiscences but also through their relationship with the rabbit, eventually named Fiver after a character in Watership Down.

While there have been plenty of books exploring the social upheaval of the pandemic, Cheng is more interested in how the lock-down rules impact on her characters. Drawing on the sudden forced togetherness, learning from home and social isolation to turn up the pressure on her characters and force them to confront the issues they have been avoiding.

Cheng starts with tension and explores it carefully, as her characters tiptoe through the minefield of their shared history. Cheng is interested in the conflict that emerges but only as a necessary process toward catharsis. Because in the end, Cheng has compassion for these characters and understands that they are only human and are ultimately defined by the things that bind them more than anything else.

The Burrow by Melanie Cheng

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8.0/10