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. Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Ava wants to be her-and wants her.Īnd then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal.'Įnter Edith. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. Her first novel Exciting Times had an excerpt published in The Stinging Fly by Sally Rooney and became a Sunday Times bestseller.

She obtained an English degree from Trinity College Dublin in 2016 and later a Master's Degree in Victorian Literature from Oxford University.

'This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living-and guaranteed to please.' ( Vogue )Īn intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyerĪva, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Naoise Dolan is a queer and autistic Irish writer born in Dublin.

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan