Exciting Times
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
'Kept me rapt until the final page' THE TIMES
'More than lives up to the hype ... Likely to fill the Sally-Rooney-shaped hole in many readers' lives' IRISH TIMES
'Droll, shrewd and unafraid - a winning debut' Hilary Mantel, author of WOLF HALL
'A sharp, smart, witty modern love story. I loved it' David Nicholls, author of ONE DAY
When you leave Ireland aged 22 to spend your parents' money, it's called a gap year. When Ava leaves Ireland aged 22 to make her own money, she's not sure what to call it, but it involves:
- a badly-paid job in Hong Kong, teaching English grammar to rich children;
- Julian, who likes to spend money on Ava and lets her move into his guest room;
- Edith, who Ava meets while Julian is out of town and actually listens to her when she talks;
- money, love, cynicism, unspoken feelings and unlikely connections.
Exciting times ensue.
'I had real fun with Exciting Times. It is a very funny, spiky, Marxist, feminist comedy and it's really mean' Zadie Smith
'A frankly sensational book' Pandora Sykes
'In the tradition of Dorothy Parker, Joan Rivers and Nora Ephron ... I found myself purring with pleasure. ...This is comic writing at the highest level' Craig Brown, DAILY MAIL
'I've been pushing Exciting Times on everyone I know. Some of Dolan's pithy observations of her characters are the best I've read since Edward St Aubyn' OBSERVER
Readers are loving this:
'Funny, witty and utterly enjoyable' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A deeply profound insight into a modern relationship and love story' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Delighted to have read this gem of a story. It gave and took in equal measure and I laughed and cringed' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Funny and wry and political and smart and it knows exactly how it feels to be 22 and in unfamiliar surroundings' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It takes only a few pages of Naoise Dolan’s extraordinary, much-anticipated debut to realise that the Irish writer’s future will be very bright indeed. Exciting Times transports us to Hong Kong, where we meet 22-year-old Ava, an English teacher from Ireland who forms a friendship with Oxford-educated banker Julian. He is her polar opposite in almost every way, yet they bond, with Julian eventually inviting Ava to live in his plush apartment (and his bed). But when Ava meets Edith, a lawyer who studied at Cambridge, everything changes. Taught, razor-sharp and brimming with dry wit, Exciting Times is an impeccable portrayal of growing up, figuring out who you are and love, as well as the crushing fear of committing to it. Dolan’s debut will no doubt draw countless comparisons with Sally Rooney, who is thanked in the novel’s acknowledgements. But Exciting Times confirms the author as a unique voice in her own right. This is a novel so readable you’ll devour it with the same intensity as Dolan pours into the characters on her pages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Dolan's wry, tender debut, a young Dubliner navigates her love life and sexuality. Ava, 22, has a murky friendship with London-born and Oxford-educated banker Julian, in his late 20s, whom she'd met at a bar during her first month in Hong Kong, where she teaches English. They treat each other with ironic regard, speaking mostly in quips about his privilege and their mutual maybe-attraction. Ava moves into his flat, and they soon start sleeping together. The novel picks up speed after Julian travels to London for work and Ava meets Edith Zhang, who is both different from Julian in many ways stylish, female, a Hong Kong local and similar boarding school, Cambridge, a well-off family. On Ava's 23rd birthday, Edith kisses her, and they fall headlong into an earnest, garrulous, and secret love, as Edith isn't out to her family. When Julian writes to say he will be returning in a month, Ava, who hasn't disclosed the true nature of her and Julian's relationship to Edith, must decide what she really wants. Dolan starts slowly, but gradually the ironic distancing of Ava's narration is pierced by questions from Ava's students and her transformative relationship with Edith. Dolan's smart, brisk debut works as charming comedy of manners, though it packs less of a punch when it comes to class consciousness.
