Rachel Papers

Martin Amis's first novel, The Rachel Papers, tells the story of Charles Highway and his relationship with his girlfriend in the year before going to university-with a new introduction by Paul Murray. Charles Highway, a bright, egotistical Oxford student and soon-to-be Great Novelist, spends the eve of his twentieth birthday reflecting on his adolescence-at times stimulating, often embarrassing, and never nearly as debauched as he'd have liked. Until he meets Rachel Noyes, an elusive, unattainable, manic pixie mystery of a girl whom Charles quickly becomes entranced by. He meticulously draws up battle plans and strategies for how to seduce Rachel, and thus the " Rachel Papers" are born. Unflinchingly honest, comedically brilliant, and unapologetically original, Martin Amis's first novel, The Rachel Papers, is a masterful account of the passion and fickleness of first lust-and love.