PMJ to publish Marian Keyes' sequel to Rachel’s Holiday

Michael Joseph will publish Marian Keyes' sequel to Rachel's Holiday next year, revisiting one of the author's most loved characters almost 25 years on. 

Again, Rachel will be released on 17th February 2022. Louise Moore, managing director at Penguin Michael Joseph (PMJ) , acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Jonathan Lloyd at Curtis Brown. PMJ will also publish a new edition of Rachel's Holiday on 11th November 2021. Originally released in paperback in 1997, the story of Rachel Walsh's spell in rehab in The Cloisters, Dublin's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, has sold 490,101 copies for £2.8m in the Nielsen BookScan era. 

The synopsis for the sequel says: "Rachel is back! Back in Ireland. Back in The Cloisters—as a counsellor, thankfully, not a client. And back to face the demons of her past as the man she has tried very hard to forget returns and all her certainties, of life, love and family, wobble..." 

Louise Moore, managing director at PMJ, said: "It’s hard to believe that it’s almost 25 years since the publication of Marian’s landmark novel Rachel’s Holiday. It defined a new kind of commercial, relevant writing, and has now become a modern classic. And as the first book I ever published with Marian, I am so very honoured and excited to be publishing Again, Rachel, Rachel’s follow-up story.

"Marian has rightly been praised for redefining popular fiction. Her deeply honest, nuanced portrayals of women at all stages of their lives, through the loveable, flawed heroines who inhabit her novels, have inspired an army of loyal readers. Marian can make you laugh and make you cry in the space of a page; she constantly surprises, she never under-delivers. We at Penguin Michael Joseph love and admire Marian, and are incredibly proud to bring Again, Rachel to her legions of fans across the world."

This morning (17th August) more than 200 people are taking to their yoga mats in front of Tower Bridge for a special class in partnership with MoreYoga to celebrate the announcement of Again, Rachel, with a similar event happening in Dublin.