Again, Rachel

by Marian Keyes

Michael Joseph

As I’ve mentioned before I adore Marian Keyes so I find it impossible to be objective about her books.  I always open up her latest expecting to LOVE it and I always do!  Again, Rachel is no exception, in fact, it might be up there as one of my favourites!

Having sworn she’d never write a sequel, this is Marian’s sequel to Rachel’s Holiday which you may remember was no holiday at all … back in the 90’s Rachel found herself in rehab with her life crumbling around her but now Rachel is back on track.  Her life is in order. She’s back in Dublin, she’s in love, she has time for her delightful family and she’s loving her job as one of the top councillors at the very clinic in which did her own rehab.  Life is good.  But then Luke, a great love from years ago, appears and the good life she has painstakingly built for herself seems to be on shaky ground.  Not again, Rachel??

Its deliciously funny, in that gloriously Irish way, but it’s heart-breaking in equal measure.  Marian is the master at creating characters we love, warts and all; flawed characters grappling with whatever life throws at them and still managing to hold onto their sense of humour.  I loved it!

Click here to see me twittering on about how much I loved it!!

If there’s a core theme in Again, Rachel, it’s that of forgiveness: forgiveness of oneself for human failings. Forgiveness for loved ones who don’t always behave in ways we might wish. Forgiveness for the adversities – seemingly perverse in their cruelty – that life sometimes throws at us. Again, Rachel has all of Keyes’s trademark wit, humour and whip-smart dialogue, but it’s also a novel teeming with compassion and redemption. – The Guardian

‘Keyes weaves the joy and pain of life in a unique and magical way’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink