Welcome back, fabulous Rachel
SARA LAWRENCE AGAIN, RACHEL by Marian Keyes
(Michael Joseph £20, 400 pp) I’M FAR from alone in being hugely excited about this sequel to Keyes’s 1997 triumph, Rachel’s Holiday, which sold 1.5 million copies and has become a modern classic.
Rachel’s original ‘holiday’ was, of course, a spell in rehab for a cocaine addiction which had spiralled to the stage of delivering endless consequences, stripping our girl of all the things she loved most.
Rachel begins this follow-up in a peaceful place. She is head counsellor at a local rehab, in a relationship with a gorgeous man and enjoying her new love of gardening.
I don’t want to ruin any plot twists, but I can reveal that the sudden reappearance of a man she never got over throws everything into chaos.
It’s beautifully written, funny, heart-breaking and always wise. I was so happy to be reunited with this iconic protagonist and her fabulous family — a proper treat.
WHAT A SHAME
by Abigail Bergstrom (Hodder £14.99, 272 pp) APPEALING millennial protagonist Mathilda cannot move on from the hideous shock of an unwanted breakup. She is also grieving the death of her beloved father and struggling to separate the two situations in her mind.
She has done everything she thinks might help, including letting her tears run free and attempting to master difficult yoga poses, while her friends keep recommending psychics, psychedelics, curse-breaking ceremonies and various other left-field spiritual practices.
Healing and happiness are, of course, inside jobs but in order to reach those positive spaces trauma must be excavated first, and Mathilda’s pain is so deeply buried she’s largely unaware of it. I raced through this alternately haunting and hilarious debut, an original and zeitgeisty story about grief, friendship, secrets, shame and self-acceptance.
A VERY NICE GIRL
by Imogen Crimp (Bloomsbury £16.99, 336 pp) THIS coming-of-age story is a beautifully written examination of the psychology of sex, power, ambition and love and it’s particularly brilliant on being insecure about who you are.
Anna is studying to become an opera singer and taking bar jobs to pay the bills when she meets wealthy and inscrutable banker Max, 14 years older than her.
Anna believed that when she got her place at the Conservatory her struggles were over. The sad fact is that her expectations do not match the reality, both with her course and this new relationship.
She doesn’t fit in with her rich peers and often feels like she’s drowning under the various pressures. She also doesn’t fit in with Max, or with the family she left behind. It’s almost impossible for Anna to concentrate on her career at the same time as Max and it’s not long before she can barely think straight. Wonderful.