The author of Black Chalk, 'the smart summer thriller you've been waiting for' (NPR), returns with a mesmerising new novel about a dangerous secret society at Oxford University and the first-year literature student whose life unravels in its shadow.
When Ali McCain, an eighteen-year-old from Los Angeles, is accepted at Oxford, it's a chance to fulfill his dreams. To study English literature in England; to meet true intellectuals; and to glimpse the life he might have lived had his father - British rock star Gel McCain, legendary front man of the Pale Fires - not abandoned him and his mother when he was a toddler.
But not long after he arrives, Ali is drawn into a dark, disorienting world where events grow more curious by the day. Trading on his father's name, he gains entry into one of Oxford's oldest and most selective secret societies, the Saracens. As he immerses himself in this rarefied world, he inadvertently sets in motion a series of events that might culminate in disaster.
A mind-bending literary house of mirrors, replete with bookish allusions and Easter eggs ranging from Brideshead Revisited to King Lear, The Rabbit Club is an arresting new work from a writer of 'extraordinary skill' (Washington Post).
Praise for The Rabbit Club
"Riveting from page one to the twisty and twisted ending."-Susannah Cahalan, New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
"It's strange to describe a story of murder, betrayal, and manipulation as delightful, but with its nods to Alice in Wonderland, colorful characters, and mind-bending twist, that's exactly what this is. So follow Christopher J. Yates down the rabbit hole, knowing that you're in capable hands."-Lauren Nosset, author of The Resemblance
"The Rabbit Club a lively labyrinth of a novel, a fun read that nods at pop hits and dusty classics alike, and that unlocks a secret society of characters as colorful as those who populate Alice's Wonderland. The game is afoot... and it is wicked and wild!"-Matthew Sullivan, author of Midnight in Soap Lake
"Diving into The Rabbit Club, a dizzying story grippingly told, is like taking a leap into Alice's rabbit hole only to discover something mysterious, compelling and new. There is a dark sense of danger in the wonderland Yates creates, a world of game players, liars and secret societies. Rarely has a dark academia tale been spun with this much verve and thrill. When the truth is revealed, your head might spin backward-or even flip itself inside-out."-Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author of Eden Undone and Where You End