Imprint
- W&N
- W&N
- W&N
Hong Kong, Of specific Gay & Lesbian interest, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Romance, Adult & contemporary romance
Naoise Dolan explodes onto the scene with Exciting Times, a slyly humorous and scorchingly smart modern love story
'The book of the summer' The Times
'A sharp, smart, witty modern love story. I loved it' David Nicholls
'Likely to fill the Sally-Rooney-shaped hole in many readers' lives' Irish Times
'Droll, shrewd and unafraid' Hilary Mantel
'I've been pushing Exciting Times on everyone I know' Observer
'A frankly sensational book' Pandora Sykes
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 found myself purring with pleasure. ...This is comic writing at the highest level' Craig Brown, Daily Mail
'Very funny, extremely sharp, insightful and raw' Observer
Fiercely intelligent, brutally funny and written with such heart' Nathan Filer
'As brilliant as everyone says! I devoured it' Marian Keyes
'A dazzling debut' Evening Standard
'The funniest writer you will read this year' Irish Independent
'Fantastic' Metro
'Constant fun' Telegraph
'I savoured every shrewd line' Dazed
More books by Naoise Dolan
Praise for Exciting Times: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021
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Droll, shrewd and unafraid - a winning debut
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Read if you like Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth, Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - Sunday Times Style
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Exciting Times, which was acquired in a seven-way bidding war, more than lives up to the hype ... It teems with insight around class, race, language and sexuality. Likely to fill the Sally-Rooney-shaped hole in many readers' lives. - Irish Times
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Fiercely intelligent, brutally funny and written with such heart, Exciting Times announces an impressive new voice in literature.
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A love story about three expats in Hong Kong - teacher Ava, banker Julian, and the alluring Edith - and explores the nuances and uncertainties of modern love - Cosmopolitan, 'Best Books of 2020'
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A sharp, funny account of a contemporary relationship, told tenderly and with biting, bright insight.
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So wry, witty and insightful
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Dolan's debut lives up to the hype, a hypnotic tale of a young Irish woman adrift in Hong Kong and caught between two very different relationships. - The i newspaper
Discover more
Naoise Dolan
Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. She studied at Trinity College, followed by a master's in Victorian literature at Oxford. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features for publications including The London Review of Books, The Guardian and Vogue.
Naoise's debut novel EXCITING TIMES was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller, widely translated and optioned for TV. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for several prizes, including The Women's Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.
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