Martin Amisβs first novel, The Rachel Papers, tells the story of Charles Highway and his relationship with his girlfriend in the year before going to university.
Charles Highway, a bright, egotistical Oxford student and soon-to-be Great Novelist, spends the eve of his twentieth birthday reflecting on his adolescenceβat times stimulating, often embarrassing, and never nearly as debauched as heβd 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 βRachel Papersβ are born.
Unflinchingly honest, comedically brilliant, and unapologetically original, Martin Amisβs first novel, The Rachel Papers, is a masterful account of the passion and fickleness of first lustβand love.