Rabbit Rabbit

Rabbit Rabbit is a romantic, emotionally warm novel about chance, timing, motherhood, grief, friendship, and the difficulty of choosing one life when another suddenly appears. Its heroine, Billie, is a thirty-nine-year-old film editor in Los Angeles who decides, on New Year’s Eve in Florence, that she is going to have a baby on her own. The title comes from the superstition that saying “rabbit rabbit” first thing on the first day of the month brings good luck. Over the course of a year, Billie keeps trying to make her own luck, even as life keeps interrupting her plan.

The novel begins on January 1st in Florence, where Billie is celebrating New Year’s Eve with her two best friends, Talia and Jane. The three met at USC film school and have been inseparable ever since, though their lives have diverged. Talia is married to Caleb and has two daughters, Maisy and Sophie. Jane is a powerful Netflix executive with a girlfriend, Kavya. Billie is single, successful, and independent, but she has grown tired of waiting for the perfect partner before becoming a mother. During the countdown at a rooftop bar, she suddenly knows: this year, she will try to have a baby.

Almost immediately, the universe seems to complicate her decision. At the bar, Billie meets Arthur, a charming Scottish environmental scientist. He stops her from eating a germy cherry, jokes with her about sneezes, asks her to get pizza, and sparks the kind of instant connection she has almost given up hoping for. Billie initially walks away, determined not to let romance distract her from her new decision. But later, after gelato, she sees Arthur again. Talia and Jane encourage her to treat the night as an adventure. Arthur had joked that if they met again, it might be at the Duomo at one. When a church clock strikes one, Billie takes it as a sign and goes.