Marian Keyes Books in Order: Complete List

The Marian Keyes books in order begin with her debut novel, Watermelon, and extend across the Walsh Family series, nine standalone novels, short fiction, and nonfiction. Keyes is an Irish author whose funny, emotionally honest stories explore family, relationships, addiction, grief, depression, and the messier parts of adult life.

Through My Favorite Mistake, her bibliography includes 16 novels: seven Walsh Family books and nine standalones. She has also published a novella, a Walsh Family companion, collections of journalism, a cookbook, and contributions to collaborative books and anthologies.

Jump to:

• Walsh Family Series
• Marian Keyes Standalone Books
• Marian Keyes Short Fiction
• Marian Keyes Nonfiction Books
• Marian Keyes Collaborations and Selected Contributions
• Marian Keyes Book-to-Screen Adaptations
• Who Is Marian Keyes?

Walsh Family Series

The Walsh Family series follows sisters Claire, Rachel, Maggie, Anna, and Helen, along with their parents and extended family. The first five novels center on a different sister, while Again, Rachel returns to Rachel and My Favorite Mistake returns to Anna.

I recommend reading the series in publication order. In particular, read Rachel’s Holiday before Again, Rachel, and read Anybody Out There? before My Favorite Mistake. Watermelon was first published in Ireland in 1995 and in the United States in 1998.

1. Watermelon (1998)
2. Rachel’s Holiday (2000)
3. Angels (2002)
4. Anybody Out There? (2006)
5. The Mystery of Mercy Close (2013)
6. Again, Rachel (2022)
7. My Favorite Mistake (2024)

Walsh Family Companion

Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family is a short ebook guide narrated by the family matriarch. I recommend reading it after The Mystery of Mercy Close, since it assumes you already know the five sisters and their stories. It is a companion to the series rather than an eighth novel.

• Mammy Walsh’s A-Z of the Walsh Family (2013)

Marian Keyes Standalone Books

These nine novels tell independent stories with different characters, so you can read them in any order. I’d choose whichever premise appeals to you most, or follow publication order to see how Keyes’s work developed over time.

1. Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married (1999)
2. Last Chance Saloon (2001)
3. Sushi for Beginners (2003)
4. The Other Side of the Story (2004)
5. This Charming Man (2008)
6. The Brightest Star in the Sky (2010)
7. The Woman Who Stole My Life (2015)
8. The Break (2017)
9. Grown Ups (2020)

Marian Keyes Short Fiction

No Dress Rehearsal is a novella written for the Open Door series of accessible short books. It was first published in Ireland in 2000, followed by a U.S. edition in 2009.

1. No Dress Rehearsal (2009) (Novella)

Is Gearr… is the 2007 Irish-language translation of No Dress Rehearsal. It tells the same story and is an alternative edition for readers who prefer to read it in Irish.

Marian Keyes Nonfiction Books

Marian Keyes hasn’t published a conventional autobiography, but her journalism collections contain plenty of personal writing about work, travel, family, beauty, mental health, and everyday life. Saved by Cake is a cookbook that also discusses the period when baking helped her through severe depression.

1. Under the Duvet (2004)
2. Cracks in My Foundation (2005), published elsewhere as Further Under the Duvet
3. Saved by Cake (2013)
4. Making It Up As I Go Along (2016)

Collected Editions and Samplers

Under the Duvet: Deluxe Edition (2017) combines Under the Duvet and Further Under the Duvet and adds seven hard-to-find short stories. I think it’s the most useful option for readers who want both journalism collections in one volume.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens in Tiffany’s (2005) is a short Pocket Penguin sampler of previously published material. Readers looking for new fiction won’t find additional stories in this volume.

Marian Keyes Collaborations and Selected Contributions

Keyes has written one chapter of a collaborative novel and contributed short fiction or personal writing to several multi-author collections. In these volumes, her work appears alongside contributions from other writers.

1. Yeats Is Dead! (2001) (Collaborative Novel)
2. Big Night Out (2002)
3. Irish Girls About Town (2003) (Contains “Soulmates”)
4. Girls’ Night In (2004) (Contains “The Truth Is Out There”)
5. The Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales (2005)
6. Girls’ Night Out (2006) (Contains “Wishing Carefully”)
7. The Booby Trap and Other Bits and Boobs (2013)
8. Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You (2020)

Marian Keyes Book-to-Screen Adaptations

Several Marian Keyes novels have been adapted for television or film. Each screen version stands on its own, though reading the novel first makes it easier to see how the story changed for the adaptation.

Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married

Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married became an ITV television series in 1999. It follows the central premise of the novel, with Lucy trying to make sense of a fortune-teller’s prediction that she will soon marry, while the longer television format expands the lives of her friends and potential partners.

Watermelon

Watermelon is a 2003 television movie starring Anna Friel as Claire Walsh and Brenda Fricker as her mother. It adapts the first Walsh Family novel and centers on Claire rebuilding her life after her husband leaves shortly after their daughter is born.

Au secours, j’ai trente ans!

Au secours, j’ai trente ans! is a 2004 French film loosely based on Last Chance Saloon. The adaptation relocates and reshapes the story, so it’s better viewed as a reinterpretation than a close scene-by-scene version of the novel.

The Walsh Sisters

The Walsh Sisters is a six-part television series that premiered on RTÉ One in 2025 and aired on BBC One in 2026. It draws on the first five Walsh Family novels, with major storylines from Rachel’s Holiday and Anybody Out There?, while bringing all five sisters into one ensemble drama.

Grown Ups

Netflix announced an eight-part adaptation of Grown Ups centered on the Casey family and its complicated relationships. The cast includes Sarah Greene, Barry Ward, and Robert Sheehan.

Who Is Marian Keyes?

Marian Keyes is an Irish novelist born in Limerick in 1963. She studied law at University College Dublin and spent much of her twenties in London. Keyes began writing short stories shortly before entering treatment for alcohol addiction at age 30, then continued writing during her recovery. Watermelon became her debut novel.

Her fiction often combines humor with serious subjects such as addiction, depression, grief, domestic abuse, and difficult family relationships. In my view, her greatest strength is that the comedy never erases the consequences. It makes her characters feel more recognizably human.

Keyes lives in Dublin with her husband, Tony Baines. My Favorite Mistake is her sixteenth novel.

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