The Rachel Incident
Cork, Ireland, the early years of the post-2008 recession. Rachel Murray is finishing an English degree at University College Cork and trying to feed herself on a part-time bookshop salary when she meets James Devlin, a flamboyant, broke colleague who quickly becomes her best friend, her flatmate, and her co-conspirator. Together they hatch a plan to seduce her married professor Dr. Fred Byrne on Rachel's behalf, except James, it turns out, is gay and is the one Fred wants. From there a long, drink-fueled second adulthood begins to unfold across Cork pubs, doomed editorial internships in London, an unwanted pregnancy, and the slow death of an academic career. Caroline O'Donoghue's 2023 novel, narrated by Rachel from a quieter present, is a wry, generous look at female friendship, queerness, the romance of recession-era Ireland, and the people we love badly because we cannot yet love them properly.
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In 2010 recession-era Cork, English student Rachel Murray takes a part-time job at a small bookshop and ends up renting a damp flat with her sweet, slightly mysterious colleague James Devlin. When she develops a crush on her married professor Dr. Byrne, James draws himself into her plan.
The Rachel Incident was written by Caroline O'Donoghue and published in 2023. O'Donoghue is also the author of All Our Hidden Gifts, the host of the Sentimental Garbage podcast, and a journalist.
The Rachel Incident is more literary fiction than romance, though it includes a friendship-with-romantic-stakes premise. It is set in 2010s Cork, Ireland, and follows a publishing-world friendship and unexpected pregnancy.
The Rachel Incident is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
The Rachel Incident is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.