Fiction, General Fiction
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  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times
  • Exciting Times

Exciting Times: Exclusive Edition

Hardback Published on: 16/04/2020
£14.99
27 reviews
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Bookseller Reviews

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Exciting Times
Exciting Times
Naoise Dolan's debut novel puts modern love under the microscope. The protagonist, Ava, is a particularly good lens for this task, cursed as she is with th... READ MORE
Edward Greenwood
Exciting Times
Intriguing plot
Contemporary love triangle. Explores many modern issues. The protagonist is a confused character exploring relationships and making a living in an uncert... READ MORE
Linda@{Livingston]
Exciting Times
Modern Love
Sharp, insightful and dryly funny. I really enjoyed this quirky novel.
Julie at Hatchards
Exciting Times
For fans of Normal People
Exciting Times offers a fresh perspective to the grass-is-always-greener scenario, showing how power, privilege and doubt effect modern relationships. Ava ... READ MORE
Autumn at Newbury
Exciting Times
Clever and uncompromising
I received this advance reading copy ahead of publication and was really looking forward to starting it. The reviews are great and it has been likened to b... READ MORE
Beth at Chesterfield

Synopsis

Exclusive Edition - includes exclusive endpapers and sprayed edges.

A standard edition is available here.

Longlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize 2021

Shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2020

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times / University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award 2020

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.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
  • ISBN: 9781474618908
  • Number of pages: 288
  • Dimensions: 222 x 138 mm

Customer Reviews

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Exciting Times
Exciting debut...
This is a modern , intelligent novel about a love triangle. Ava is young Irish living in Hong Kong teaching English and having an affair with a rich banker... READ MORE
Emine at Bromley
Exciting Times
Friends could mean anything...
This story is of Ava, recently moving to Hong Kong. She finds herself caught between the financial security of banker Julian and the earnest lawyer Edith. ... READ MORE
Helena
Exciting Times
Marks the arrival of a major new talent
Naoise Dolan will surely be compared to Sally Rooney, but really she's in a league of her own. Fiercely intelligent, bitingly witty, and razor sharp, Exc... READ MORE
Gaby Lee
Exciting Times
A rather insubstantial novel
★★★✰✰ 3.25 stars As with many hyped new releases Exciting Times wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. With so many professional reviewers hailing Exciting T... READ MORE
Anna Briggi
Exciting Times
Great exploration of a young woman finding her place - funny too
This book has been getting compared to Sally Rooney all over the place and, while I can see why, I think it is actually more my kind of book than Normal Pe... READ MORE
Alisonannk
Exciting Times
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
A great original read. Naoise Dolan has such an unusual angle in to describing human situations. She has a talent to watch.
Carole Hawkins
Exciting Times
Scene setting perfection
Having spent time in Hong Kong I was excited to see how this compared with my own experiences and I was not disappointed. Nolan has created a near perfect ... READ MORE
Kizzy
Exciting Times
Sharp, witty and truly 'exciting!'
Hilarious in parts and painfully relatable in others, Naoise Dolan's debut is an excellent exposition of thoroughly modern relationships. With droll, deadp... READ MORE
Rhian Kane
Exciting Times
A wonderful book about terrible people
Ava left Dublin for Hong Kong to find something new, and finds Julian, a wealthy British banker who provides her with the lavish lifestyle she seeks. But J... READ MORE
Lizzie | @littlehux
Verified Purchase
Exciting Times
Quirky
This story is a modern day love triangle story of Ava, set in Hong Kong. She finds herself with both Julian and Edith, each relationship very different fro... READ MORE
Fiona Sharp
Exciting Times
The ambiguities of modern relationships
I can see why this has been compared to Sally Rooney, as they do broadly cover similar emotional territories - the complicated nature of modern relationshi... READ MORE
Carolyn Percy
Exciting Times
Disappointing
What starts out as whip smart and funny dribbles off into a tedious tale of a working class girl stringing two rich people along. In a clear case of the wr... READ MORE
CM
Exciting Times
Underwhelming
This book wasn’t for me. Uneventful, underwhelming, uninspired.
Victoria Dale
Exciting Times
I was left a little underwhelmed
I had high expectations for Exciting Times based on reviews I’ve read. It started off well but I quickly started losing interest in Ava as a character. It ... READ MORE
Kunjal Tanna
Exciting Times
Debut from young Irish Author
Sent as a read copy by the publishers:Debut author,having seen the TV show Normal People this debut authors story has been likened to it:OK the central cha... READ MORE
ENEFCEE 1956
Exciting Times
LOVED THIS BOOK
I absolutely LOVED this novel! Naoise Dolan is such a similar writer to Sally Rooney, so for all the Normal People and Conversations With Friends fans, thi... READ MORE
Dottie Fennelly-Hunt
Exciting Times
Not such an exciting read
It is a well written book, however for me the book became slightly predictable and quite dull.
Rachel Holden
Exciting Times
Unfortunately I did not "get it"
Ava is 22, Irish and living and working in Hong Kong as a TEFL teacher. She meets a successful British man called Julian whom she embarks on a casual relat... READ MORE
Eloise
Exciting Times
Disappointed!
I was super excited to purchase Exciting Times by Dolan. Unfortunately, I found it very longwinded and arduous to get into; overall a very complex read. Th... READ MORE
BookedUp
Exciting Times
Disappointing and dull
Very little evolves or develops in the story and it was a struggle to read to the end. I was hoping to be immersed in Hong Kong’s culture but descriptive w... READ MORE
Anna Bryant