After a hiatus of 20 years, The Death of Bunny Munro is Nick Caves second novel. From the first page, Cave very effectively puts us inside the depraved mind of Bunny Munro, a middle-aged salesman of beauty products. He confirms for us that some men are thinking non-stop about sex, no matter how appropriate it may (or may not) be. This makes for some very black humour. As we follow Bunny through a death, a funeral and a road trip, we may well wonder, how did he get to be this way? Perhaps Cave is making a commentary on the power of charisma. Bunnys charisma has everyone elevating him to hero status: the friends who think hes great; his female customers who open their cheque books (and often their legs) for him; his wife, who stays despite his infidelity; his intelligent but impressionable 9-year-old son, who puts his father on a high pedestal indeed; and even himself, justifying his wanton behaviour, believing he still has it.

Cave is a master of description: He feels like the flensed blubber a butcher may trim from a choice fillet of prime English beef... The novel is full of rich imagery, some of it delightful, some grotesque. A novel with humour, horror, heartache, haunting and humanity. The authors cameo in Bunny Munros death scene is a cute touch. We are left wondering if his son will survive his influence. Comedy and tragedy both, this is a powerful read.