Read : The Guest List Read : How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories Read : Everything Beautiful in Its Time Seasons of Love and Loss Read : Summer Darlings Read : The Awakening Read : The Escape
An intimate bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyerAva moved to Hong Kong to find happiness but so far it isnt working out. Since she left Dublin shes been spending her days teaching English to rich children—shes been assigned the grammar classes because she lackAn intimate bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyerAva moved to Hong Kong to find happiness but so far it isnt working out. Since she left Dublin shes been spending her days teaching English to rich children—shes been assigned the grammar classes because she lacks warmth—and her nights avoiding petulant roommates in her cramped apartment.When Ava befriends Julian a witty British banker he offers a shortcut into a lavish life her meager salary could never allow. Ignoring her feminist leanings and her better instincts Ava finds herself moving into Julians apartment letting him buy her clothes and eventually striking up a sexual relationship with him. When Julians job takes him back to London she stays put unsure where their relationship stands.Enter Edith. A Hong Kong–born lawyer striking and ambitious Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her—and wants her. Ava has been carefully pretending that Julian is nothing more than an absentee roommate so when Julian announces that hes returning to Hong Kong she faces a fork in the road. Should she 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.(less)