Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan

UK PUBLICATION DATE: 4th MARCH 2021
 
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... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith?
 
Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.
 
----
 
‘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

‘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

‘A frankly sensational book‘ Pandora Sykes on THE HIGH LOW