About the Author

The lead singer of The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds and Grinderman, Cave has been performing music for more than 30 years. He has collaborated with Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey and many others. As well as working with Warren Ellis on the soundtrack for the film of The Road by Carmac McCarthy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he also wrote the screenplay for the film The Proposition. His debut novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, was published in 1989.

Born in Australia, Cave now lives in Brighton.

Reviews

What truly elevates the novel is not Cave's thesis, but the smoothness of the prose and masterful combination of black comedy and sentiment
* * Independent * *

In its own twisted way The Death of Bunny Munro is a plea for love in a world rancid with lust ... Bunny's bad boy charm makes it all too easy to go along for the ride
* * Metro * *

The narrative pulses with demented musical energy ... it is in every other sense a rock'n'roll novel
* * Financial Times * *

Cave makes you shudder and sob simultaneously...
* * Guardian * *

In the sense of narrative animation, and also in the sense of cultural significance, the book is a vital one, and is to be welcomed and celebrated
* * Daily Telegraph * *

Put Cormac McCarthy, Franz Kafka and Benny Hill together in a Brighton seaside guesthouse and they might just come up with The Death of Bunny Munro. A compulsive read possessing all Nick Cave's trademark horror and humanity.
* * Irvine Welsh * *

Cocksman, Salesman, Deadman; Bunny Munro might not be Everyman, but every man ought to read this book. And read it half in stitches, half in tears.
* * David Peace * *

Cave stands as one of the great writers on love of our era.
* * Will Self * *

The Death of Bunny Munro is not just a wonderful read, it's also a heartbreaking one. Cave writes novels like he does lyrics, with strokes of blood and sulphur and lightning. He strikes at the mind and heart and is able to bring his readers to their knees.
* * Neil LaBute * *

What truly elevates the novel is not Cave's thesis, but the smoothness of the prose and masterful combination of black comedy and sentiment * * Independent * *
In its own twisted way The Death of Bunny Munro is a plea for love in a world rancid with lust ... Bunny's bad boy charm makes it all too easy to go along for the ride * * Metro * *
The narrative pulses with demented musical energy ... it is in every other sense a rock'n'roll novel * * Financial Times * *
Cave makes you shudder and sob simultaneously... * * Guardian * *
In the sense of narrative animation, and also in the sense of cultural significance, the book is a vital one, and is to be welcomed and celebrated * * Daily Telegraph * *
Put Cormac McCarthy, Franz Kafka and Benny Hill together in a Brighton seaside guesthouse and they might just come up with The Death of Bunny Munro. A compulsive read possessing all Nick Cave's trademark horror and humanity. * * Irvine Welsh * *
Cocksman, Salesman, Deadman; Bunny Munro might not be Everyman, but every man ought to read this book. And read it half in stitches, half in tears. * * David Peace * *
Cave stands as one of the great writers on love of our era. * * Will Self * *
The Death of Bunny Munro is not just a wonderful read, it's also a heartbreaking one. Cave writes novels like he does lyrics, with strokes of blood and sulphur and lightning. He strikes at the mind and heart and is able to bring his readers to their knees. * * Neil LaBute * *

In 1989 Melbourne-born musician, Nick Cave, released his debut novel And the Ass Saw the Angel-a lyrically dense (and some would suggest impenetrable) book, steeped in biblical imagery, violence and wry humour. Twenty years later the much anticipated second novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, is a very different beast altogether. While still bearing the usual Cave hallmarks-the dark wit, lyricism and violence-The Death of Bunny Munro is a bawdy romp of a novel. If Dante had ever written a 'Carry On' film it may have turned out something like The Death of Bunny Munro. Bunny Munro is a self-styled ladies' man with a wife and a nine-yearold son, Bunny Junior. Narcissistic and swelling with hubris and lustful desires, Bunny Munro sells beauty products from door-to-door on the south coast of England and sets out to seduce lonely housewives- and pretty much every woman he meets-along the way. On the death of his wife he is set adrift and hits the road, hawking his wares for one final time with Bunny Junior in the passenger seat. As is evident from his songs, his earlier (and now this) novel, Cave has skilfully mastered the wry humour and grotesquery of the grand guignol. There is much to find repulsive in the character of Bunny Munro-and many of the characters in this book-as he descends into his own libidinous hell and to his inevitable end. Foreboding, trepidation and the reader's sympathies accompany him, and Bunny Junior, to the last page. In the quiffed Bunny Munro (rarely in literature has one lock of hair possessed such personality), Cave has created a compelling character. The world Nick Cave paints isn't pretty yet there is such beauty to be found in it-in the humour and pain and the hope, in his storms and his losers, in his lyricism and prose. While the Kylie Minogue and Avril Lavigne fixation in the novel, at times, wears a little thin, Cave's masterful and poetic command of language and his wry observations makes this a delight to read, as do the many laugh-out-loud moments in this otherwise dark tale. Nick Cave fans have been waiting a long time for this second novel. They, no doubt, will not be disappointed. Deborah Crabtree is a Melbourne-based fiction writer and bookseller

After a joyous ride from woman to woman, Bunny Munro, a sex-obsessed beauty product salesman, meets his comeuppance when he is fatally injured in a traffic accident. Not until his dying moments does he feel remorse over taking sexual advantage of his female customers and neglecting his nine-year-old son. However, the penitence comes only after many chapters of sexual gratification and coarse language, and one wonders if he is indeed sincere or if the author is merely seeking absolution for his own self-indulgence and bawdiness. Australian rock star Cave, moonlighting as a novelist, has an ear for the rhythm of language, employing dialog that appropriately reflects individual walks of life. But as the story, with little variation, follows Bunny door to door as he flirts with women and occasionally enjoying a "quickie," it soon becomes repetitious and tedious. Verdict Cave's previous novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, has been hailed as "adventurous," but this work, laced with infantile wit, frankly goes nowhere. Reading like a graphic novel without illustrations, it may appeal to readers with a predilection for weird humor. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/09.]-Victor Or, Surrey P.L. & North Vancouver City Lib., B.C. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.