A sardonic, feminist reimagining of the story of Mary Toft, infamous rabbit-birthing hoaxer.

Mary Toft was just another eighteenth-century woman living in poverty, misery, and frequent pain. The kind of person overlooked by those with power, forgotten by historians. Mary Toft was nothing. Until, that is, Mary Toft started giving birth to rabbits…

Sensational debut novelist Noémi Kiss-Deáki reimagines Mary’s strange and fascinating story – and how she found fame when a large swath of England became convinced that she was the mother of rabbits.

Mary and the Rabbit Dream is a story of bodily autonomy, of absurdity, of the horrors inflicted on women, of the cruel realities of poverty, and the grotesque divides between rich and poor. A story told with exquisite wit, skill, and a beautiful streak of subversive mischief.

"Noémi Kiss-Deáki's style is astonishing – hypnotic, poetic, persistent, wild, blazing and marvellous. As the novel unfolds you simply can't believe what is happening – it's outrageous, it's cruel, it's unfathomable and yet – it's the way of the world. Here is Mary Toft's tale, retold in dazzling prose that is both exquisite and furious. Noémi reimagines the possibilities for historical fiction and Mary and the Rabbit Dream is utterly original and utterly brilliant." – Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain

“One of those novels that seemingly arrives from nowhere, fully formed, as odd, disturbing, and lingering as the most vivid of fever dreams. To create something so playfully provocative, subversive and gripping displays a rare literary talent. I’ve never read anything like it.” – Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole

“In Mary and the Rabbit Dream, Noémi Kiss-Deáki transforms the tale of Mary Toft into a stinging, witty critique of the oppressions heaped upon the bodies of impoverished women. This is a brave debut, one told with courage and wit, one which dissects a ruthless system of class and gender – and lays bare the concentric circles of power that still govern our world.” – Selby Wynn Schwartz, author of After Sappho

“I loved Mary and the Rabbit Dream – a sprightly but savage tale that re-imagines the real-life case of Mary Toft, who, in 1726, supposedly started giving birth to rabbits … It’s a supple, smartly self-conscious and ingenious take on the historical novel.” – Lucy Scholes, editor of A Different Sound: Stories by Mid-Century Women Writers

“A tense, nightmarish book about power and incarnation. … Stylish, visceral, incandescent.” – Clare Pollard, author of Delphi

“Mary and the Rabbit Dream casts the curious early-eighteenth-century story of Mary Toft in a totally fresh light. This is a furious, vituperative story about class, poverty, violence, and women’s bodies.” – Stu Hennigan, author of Ghost Signs

Noémi Kiss-Deáki was born in Finland and lives on the Åland Islands – a devolved and autonomous region of Finland with its own laws and a population of 30,000. Noémi speaks Hungarian, Swedish, and English but writes all of her fiction in English. She has an academic background in art history and the history of science and ideas. She works as a medical secretary in the day, and writes fiction in the evenings. Her short story ‘The Revenge’ is set to appear in the forthcoming anthology Stories of Rebellion in January 2024 (published by The Selkie).

Noémi Kiss-Deáki's profile page

“This is one of the strangest novels I have ever read, and the fact that it is based on a true story makes it even better. If the plot isn't enough to get your attention, the writing style is unique and has a way of gripping onto you, forcing you right into the middle of this crazy, and relatively horrific, story. I will be thinking about Mary Toft for a long time, and recommending this book to anyone I can even longer!” – Porter Square Books

"Mary and the Rabbit Dream is a short novel, a psychodrama illustrating a tabloid press run amok, and body horror as farce." – The Driftless Area Review

"Mary and the Rabbit Dream is a delight: cunning, curious, cunicular." – Lucy Scholes, The Telegraph

"Mary and the Rabbit Dream catches the absurdity of the case and the systemic cruelty of 'the state of things' in eighteenth-century England … but the subversive wit she turns on the men is what makes this novel sing." – Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement