The Rachel Incident: If youve ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did (Gabrielle Zevin) - the international bestseller

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The international bestseller: a hilarious, heartfelt story of all-consuming and unexpected love

'If you've ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did' - GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

'Funny, nostalgic, sexy' MONICA HEISEY, author of Really Good, Actually

'A stormer of a novel' I NEWS

'Hilarious, wise and wonderfully written' GRAHAM NORTON

'A headlong read about being young and hopelessly in lust' SUNDAY TIMES, BEST SUMMER READS

'Easily 13/10 ... Funny, lovely, romantic, drenched in nostalgia' MARIAN KEYES

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr Byrne, her best friend James helps her devise a plan to seduce him. But what begins as a harmless crush soon pushes their friendship to its limits. Over the course of a year they will find their lives ever more entwined with the Byrnes' and be faced with impossible choices and a lie that can't be taken back...

Reviews

It's funny and nostalgic and the sex scenes are actually sexy ... it's everything I want from a summer book * Monica Heisey (bestselling author of REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY), Elle Summer Reads *
Funny, fond and wittily observed * Sunday Times *
A book full of love, and it is extremely easy to love reading it * Vogue *
Chaos at its finest * Stylist *
A headlong read about being young and hopelessly in lust ... Funny, fond and wittily observed * Sunday Times, Best Summer Reads *
Deeply relatable and extremely funny, and features a dinner party scene so awkward I had to put the book down and do a bit of breathing before I continued * Eva Wiseman, Observer *
Sometimes the most passionate love stories are platonic. As sharply witty as it is warm-hearted and wise, this coming-of-age story about an Irish graduate and her gay best friend captures the intensity of friendship, the brittle craziness of youth and the desperation of gunning for an arts job in a recession * Guardian, Best Summer Reads *
Every so often, a novel comes around that makes you excited about reading again. For me, this year that is Caroline O'Donoghue's gripping, moving The Rachel Incident, which looks like it could be branded the book of the summer ... The book is full of witty insights that get you right to the heart of the character ... O'Donoghue is a funny, smart, fearless voice who strikes the perfect balance of realism and romance, and The Rachel Incident is a stormer of a novel * Emily Bootle, i news *
A deliciously complicated and very real romance with some refreshing twists. O'Donoghue captures all the intensity of messy young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit * Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday *
Caroline O'Donoghue perfectly captures the intensity and high and lows of first love, and while The Rachel Incident is steeped in nostalgia and heartache, it's also very, very funny * Red Magazine *
An unconventional love story filled with heart and humour ... You'll gobble up The Rachel Incident in one bite and be left hungry for more * Daily Express *
The story feels slick and refined like a HBO series, but what gives it heart is O'Donoghue's raucous humour slathered on top. It's a deeply satisfying novel about friendship, love and the uncertain Ireland of 2010 * Irish Times *
Caroline O'Donoghue's best work yet, a rich and nuanced read which is endlessly entertaining * Irish Independent *
Will make you laugh and wince with its depiction of 20-something life * Independent - Best Romantic Summer Reads *
Books by Irish women writers are hot these days, and this novel is on fire.... O'Donoghue deepens the familiar coming-of-age premise with riveting moral complications * People Magazine, Book of the Week *
'O'Donoghue has a sharp eye for the tumultuous life of a young woman struggling to figure out who she is ... profoundly satisfying ... O'Donoghue has found a way to tell this story in scenes both heartbreaking and funny * Ron Charles, Washington Post *
Capturing the problems and intensity of early 20-something life, with the added complications of the restrictions of Catholic Ireland, this bittersweet story is at times laugh-out-loud funny * Best Magazine *

Hilarious, messy, and all the things being young and infatuated can often be, The Rachel Incident
creates a world so vivid you feel it wrap around you ... This book won't leave you willingly, nor will you want it to

* Independent *
An nostalgia-drenched story about intense, 20-something love - with our friends * Grazia *
The stage is set for a deliciously complicated and very real romance with some refreshing twists . . . all the intensity of messy young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit * Mail on Sunday *
A compulsive, all-consuming story about love, friendship and the messiness of being young * The i, Best New Books out in June *
The kind of warm-hearted and genuinely funny novel that's the perfect antidote to a bad news day * Sunday Business Post *
If you've ever had a literary internship that didn't really pay you; if you've ever contemplated writing a screenplay with a friend; if you've ever been unsure what to do with your degree in English; if you've ever wondered when the rug-buying part of your life will start; if you've ever avoided going home or run out of things to say to your parents; if you've ever built your life and your personality around a friend; if you've ever loved the wrong person, or the right person at the wrong time... In short, if you've ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I did -- Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Made me realise I'd never properly understood the word 'whipsmart' till now. Hilarious, wise and wonderfully written * Graham Norton *
The QFJ Index is HIGH (Queasy from Jealousy) on The Rachel Incident, easily 13/10. Funny, LOVELY, romantic, DRENCHED in nostalgia, it made me extremely happy (apart from the jealousy). I sense it'll be a BIG success * Marian Keyes *
Caroline O'Donoghue, where have you been all my life The Rachel Incident is a transportive joy, a superhighway to young friendship. Big-hearted, witty and expertly crafted - I want to live inside this book -- Sloane Crosley, author of Cult Classic
I haven't enjoyed a book as much as The Rachel Incident in a long time - so, so sharp, funny and painfully relatable. These characters defy tropes and stereotypes, they come alive on the page. I adored them * Laura Kay, author of Tell Me Everything *
I really loved this book. It was gentle yet compelling and I was truly rooting for each character, even the ones I didn't like. Caroline has a talent for writing complex characters with humour and tact. The Rachel Incident kept me guessing while feeling deeply comforted the whole way through -- Emer McLysaght, author of Oh My God What a Complete Aisling
A book I took to my heart. . . A truly lovely read; complex in its emotional range, funny, poignant, heart-breaking, beautifully plotted, with clever, pacey dialogue, vivid characters and a shocking plot twist that left me gasping in horror -- Barbara Trapido, author of Brother of the More Famous Jack
I didn't know books could be this hilarious. The Rachel Incident is so warm and comforting, and the characters so real. I can't believe Rachel and James aren't people that I know -- I care about them so deeply! -- Annie Lord, author of Notes on Heartbreak
I just had such a blast reading this book, honestly - it was sharp and romantic, and horribly funny, and so wise about love and youth. Glorious * Eva Wiseman *
A gripping story, beautifully written, with an expertly woven plot, packed with charm and suspense that sneaks up on you and leaves you rooting for the characters and gasping for more. A masterful, mesmerising tale of the joy of obsessive and consuming friendship, the secrets that bind us, and the damage we can't help but inflict on the ones we love the most -- Justin Myers, author of The Fake-Up
The Rachel Incident worked its way under my skin and into my heart and has stayed there for months. It's such a beautifully observed, open-hearted, clever, horny, desperately funny, joy of a book. It captures, with unique eloquence, those years in our early twenties when every feeling reveals an exposed nerve, when every small event is tragedy or ecstasy, when we're trying to shape, and reshape (and reshape again), who it is we want to become. I adored it -- Kate Young, author of Experienced
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, breezy and bittersweet, The Rachel Incident is a full-throated, big-hearted romp through early adulthood -- Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train
Caroline O'Donoghue writes characters that just sort of melt from the page and into your life - they are so relatable, so likeable, so beautifully messy. Her story of twenty-somethings stumbling through life, trying to find themselves but usually finding awful rented accommodation and crappy jobs instead is instantly relatable. There is a dinner party scene so brilliantly staged and so exquisitely uncomfortable, I had to read it through my fingers, like watching some sort of horror movie. Books so rarely capture the sheer chaos, heartache, misery and euphoria of our twenties, effectively the internship stage of adulthood in so many ways, but this one does it effortlessly. A truly charming, moving, funny and sad novel * Keith Stuart, author of The Boy Made of Blocks *
Has engaging central characters and relevant things to say about ghosting, student dog years, reproductive healthcare and the destructiveness of small-town gossip * Independent *
Caroline O'Donoghue shines a laser beam on young adulthood, particularly the crazy intensity of those messy, beautiful friendships forged in the fires of romantic crisis. The Rachel Incident made me nostalgic for my early twenties. But even more than that, it made me wish I could go back and hug the person I was back then and tell her she'll be okay -- Lauren Fox, author of Send For Me
I can't explain the sheer unadulterated glee of reading this. It's so good and absorbing and funny and honest and horny. And when I finished, I was bereft ... O'Donoghue's observant, incredibly smart writing and character work and story are just

Author Bio

Caroline O'Donoghue is a New York Times best-selling author and the host of the award-winning podcast Sentimental Garbage. She has written two novels for adults, Promising Young Women, which was shortlisted for the AN Post Irish Book Awards - Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year, and Scenes of a Graphic Nature, which was longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize. She was also longlisted for the supernatural series for teenagers, All Our Hidden Gifts. She was born in Ireland and currently lives in London.