Exciting Times cover art

Exciting Times

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021

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Exciting Times

By: Naoise Dolan
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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About this listen

Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.

Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'.

Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to.

And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong....

©2019 Naoise Dolan (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Literature & Fiction China
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I thought this debut novel ticked enough boxes for me to give it a try, so I handed over my Audible credit and I was not disappointed. Not unique, but certainly fresh, made all the better for being narrated by Aoife McMahon.

Ava is a young Irish woman, newly arrived in Hong Kong to work as an unqualified TEFL teacher to rich young HK kids. She meets Julian, a young and wealthy London banker, and the two hit it off. Although not enough to be in an 'official' relationship. They are intimate, they have fun together, and even though Ava soon moves into the spare room at Julian's lovely apartment, she will never be his girlfriend. When Julian is on an extended placement back in London, Ava stays on in the apartment ('looking after' it). She doesn't have many of her own friends in Hong Kong apart from Julian so she's getting a little lonely until Edith enters her life.

A couple of things made this book stand out for me. Firstly, I felt like the relationships were very real. It's not a fairytale - things get messy, just like in real life. I think this is why comparisons are made with Sally Rooney (not just the fact that both are young Irish writers). The other thing I looooved was Ava's obsession with language. Having made a late-career change to TEFL myself, I really appreciated her observations about British English, Dublin English and HK English. These were elevated by McMahon's narration, too, as a performer who really understands and can do language and accents.

So, overall this one was a winner for me and I'll be happy to take a look at Dolan's next offering.

For lovers of language

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Had high hopes but found it pretentious with three unlikeable characters. Couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Meh

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Challenging not to lose heart and give up early on. Such frustrating characters. It all came together beautifully in the final chapters.

Quite unique

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I really enjoyed this novel and while not every book is for everyone, I don’t think you can doubt the quality of the writing and voice.

The voice acting was also great. I would recommend to people who enjoy character driven literary works that is more light hearted in tone and cheeky.

Really well written

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