A sharp, poignant and beautifully told story of losing yourself, finding yourself and the lengths we will go to for those we love from the critically acclaimed author of Promising Young Women and Scenes of a Graphic Nature.

2023's most anticipated summer read

'Funny, lovely, romantic, drenched in nostalgia' Marian Keyes

'You will love The Rachel Incident' Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The Rachel Incident is an all-consuming love story. But it's not the one you're expecting. It's unconventional and messy. It's young and foolish. It's about losing and finding yourself. But it is always about love.

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...

Early readers are falling in love with The Rachel Incident:

'A triumph of a novel'

'Extremely witty, charming and humorous'

'Her best book yet - this is going to be huge'

'Perfection. I want to delete it from my brain so I can read it for the first time again'

'Delightfully addictive'

About the Author

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.