Rachel's Holiday

'How did it end up like this? Twenty-seven, unemployed, mistaken for a drug addict, in a treatment centre in the back arse of nowhere with an empty Valium bottle in my knickers . . . '

Meet Rachel Walsh. She has a pair of size 8 feet and such a fondness for recreational drugs that her family has forked out the cash for a spell in Cloisters - Dublin's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. She's only agreed to her incarceration because she's heard that rehab is wall-to-wall jacuzzis, gymnasiums and rock stars going tepid turkey - and it's about time she had a holiday.

But what Rachel doesn't count on are the toe-curling embarrassments heaped on her by family and group therapy, the dearth of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll - and missing Luke, her ex. What kind of a new start in life is this?

About the Author

Marian Keyes was born in Limerick in 1963, and brought up in Cavan, Cork, Galway and Dublin. She studied law and accountancy before turning to writing. Her first novel Watermelon was published in Ireland in 1995, where it was an immediate, runaway success. Marian Keyes is now one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time and is published in thirty nine different languages. She lives in Dún Laoghaire with her husband Tony.

Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels, The Other Side of the Story and Anybody Out There. Her two collections of journalism, Under the Duvet and Further Under the Duvet, are also available in Penguin. Marian lives in Dublin with her husband.