The Burrow by Melanie Cheng is a novella about loss and grief in a family after the unspeakable happens. How does a family go on when a very young child dies in an accident whilst in the care of another family member?

There were clues: things she said in passing, a grisly observation about how a particular animal could die, or the prospect of a missing schoolgirl she’d heard about in the news being found alive (which was apparently close to zero). Comments so ghoulish they seemed out of place on the lips of a ten-year-old child

Six years ago, six month old Ruby drowned while being bathed by her grandmother, Pauline, who suffered a stroke.  Set in Melbourne at the tail end of the pandemic, the family, comprise on Jin, Amy and their ten year old daughter Lucie, are stuck in their grief. Their pet rabbit Fiver, was bought during a lock-down and becomes the focus of family members trying to avoid focussing on their own trauma and loss.

Perhaps this was the purpose of pets after all, she thought, to provide a buffer between humans who had forgotten how to talk to one another.

After Pauline has a fall, she is moved in with the family and joins in the focussed care of Fiver. In the novel Fiver reflects back fragility and the pandemic setting amplifies the families isolation and disconnection from one another and themselves. The Burrow is a quiet and sparsely written exploration of intergenerational grief.