PENGUIN BOOKS
RACHEL’S HOLIDAY
‘One of the most successful writers of contemporary fiction’
‘Snappy writing and Keyes’ sharp eye for the absurdities of life make cracking entertainment’
‘Keyes is a rare writer in the popular fiction genre in that most of her characters are as strong as her plot lines and the dialogue sparkles and rings true’
‘She is a talented comic writer… laden with plot, twists, jokey asides and nicely turned bits of zeitgeisty observational humour… energetic, well-constructed prose delivers life and people in satisfyingly various shades of grey’
‘(She) gives popular fiction a good name, no easy feat in a field dominated by overpaid imitators and charlatans’
‘Keyes has a gift for zippy prose which means reading her is like delving into a delicious souffle’
‘Keyes has taken over Binchy’s crown as the Queen of Irish Fiction. [She] is a superior storyteller who seamlessly combines style and substance, humour and pathos, and thoroughly deserves her best-selling status’
‘Her writing sparkles and the world is a better place for her books’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of
Rachel’s Holiday
MARIAN KEYES
PENGUIN
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USAPenguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc. )
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre,
Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany,
Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in Penguin Books 1997
76
Copyright © Marian Keyes, 1997
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All events and characters in this novel are fictitious.
Any resemblance to actual events or real people is coincidental.
Extract from ‘Advent’ by Patrick Kavanagh, reproduced by kind permission
of the Trustees of the Estate of Kathleen Kavanagh.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser