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Beautiful World, Where Are You

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Beautiful World, Where Are You

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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About this listen

' Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney's best novel.' THE TIMES

The *new* novel from the internationally bestselling author of Normal People.

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They worry about sex and friendship and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

'A tour de force. The dialogue never falters, and the prose burns up the page.'
GUARDIAN

'Rooney's strongest writing thus far . . . There is a touching honesty and truthfulness in these pages, along with a quiet brilliance.'
FINANCIAL TIMES

'The book moved me to tears more than once . . . Rooney's best novel.'
THE TIMES

'Written with immense skill and illuminated by an endlessly incisive intelligence.'
IRISH TIMES

' Beautiful World, Where Are You is not just worth reading. It's worth thinking about.'
IRISH INDEPEDENT

'Brilliantly done: gripping, steamy, unbearably sad.'
TELEGRAPH

©2022 Faber & Faber (P)2022 Faber & Faber
Coming of Age Contemporary Contemporary Romance Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romance

Critic Reviews

'Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney's best novel.' The Times

'A tour de force.' Anne Enright, Guardian

'Rooney's best novel yet.' Brandon Taylor, New York Times

All stars
Most relevant
No one writes sexy, broody, intellectually charged characters like Sally Rooney. I loved listening to this.

Obsessed!

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Why are all the women in Sally Rooney’s books so submissive and self-degrading? And everyone is kind of an asshole. I couldn’t tell which character I was listening to speak because they all sounded the same to me (one woman voice and one mans voice)

Eh…

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Another incredible portrayal of incredibly complex but multi layered characters. I loved loved this book. I will recommend this to everyone. Aoife is very talented and again her voice gives life to remarkable characters

Sally you make the world beautiful with your words

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I found the story interesting.. fairly slow in parts and the email exchanges between the two women quite political and tedious. As I loved Normal People I was a little disappointed in this book . I didn’t mind it , but didn’t love it ..

Interesting

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I was expecting a lot because of how much I loved Normal People (like most of us), but found this boring imitation of it instead. Few twists: instead of one couple there’s 2, but same idea: one is low class, the other is wealthy. Same erotic scenes. Same descriptions of how people look…

Dull

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Beautifully written and I enjoyed it, but yes as per other reviews- you really need to revel in nothingness

Look you just have to enjoy the language

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I love Rooney’s writing and found some of the moments very poignant. However, what the novel lacks is a plot. It was very meandering, unfortunately. Love the narrator.

Plot lacking

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it was a great story- I was hooked from beginning to end. found myself loving then hating each character individually like they were my own friends

loved the narration. was so captivating

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Emails between the friends were indulgent. Female characters insufferable and men not much better. Ending cheesy and expected. Listened because of book club. Wouldn’t have bothered otherwise.

Indulgent

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I love Sally Rooney’s writing - really enjoyable listen especially with the Irish accent of the reader. Highly recommend for engaging easy listening.

Engaging

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