CULTURE CLUB
CAMBRIDGE EDITION Book Club July’s selection of fantastic new reads includes a gripping neighbourhood thriller, a tale of motherhood and a warm-hearted family saga
WORDS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
BY CAROLINE O’DONOGHUE The Rachel Incident
Byrnes’ in ways neither of them could have foreseen. The beauty of this novel is in the whip-smart detail. Rachel’s rationale for her decisions and her observations on life are acutely funny and grimly recognisable for many; her painful on-and-off relationship with her boyfriend Carey is deeply touching and unnervingly real, and the hopeful naivety with which the housemates navigate life will make you cringe, yet also charm you. You’ll probably charge through this in a single sitting before coming up for air – conflicted between wishing you could have lived with Rachel and James, yet also grateful to have those years in the rear-view mirror.
This is the latest novel from star author Caroline, who you may know from the excellent podcast, Sentimental Garbage . In this, we spend a year in Cork with student Rachel and her irresistibly convivial housemate James, in their poorly maintained flat, following them as they study their arts degrees, tentatively plan for the future amidst an economic crisis, scrabble for cash and cling to their much-loved jobs at a bookshop. On paper, the plot is fairly straightforward: Rachel decides she fancies her married professor, Dr Byrne, and she and James devise a scheme to get the two of them together; but the result is their lives entwining with the
28 JULY 2023 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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