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My Year of Rest and Relaxation

The cult New York Times bestseller

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My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By: Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, read by Julia Whelan.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2019

FROM THE MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF EILEEN

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Savage, funny, frequently on the verge of teetering into lunacy... My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a non-negotiable in your holiday carry-on this summer' Vogue

It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

Our narrator has many of the advantages of life: Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents in college, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her alleged best friend.

Blackly funny, both merciless and compassionate – dangling its legs over the ledge of 9/11 – My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a showcase for the gifts of one of America’s major young writers.

 Dark Humour Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Urban Women's Fiction Comedy Witty
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Critic reviews

The book that everybody’s talking about… I read it and was entranced.
This is the first book I couldn’t put down this year… Almost offensive with its close-to-the-bone truths, it’s shockingly relatable. And legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. Ottessa Moshfegh is sharp, savage and hilarious. (Isabel Dexter)
The superabundantly talented...Moshfegh’s sentences are piercing and vixenish… she is always a deep pleasure to read.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is whip-smart, continuously compelling, and acerbic in all the right ways.
Electrifying... [Moshfegh] is adept at crafting compelling female characters who violate the rules of femininity... Moshfegh’s protagonist is an unlikely revolutionary.
A relentlessly savage fable of privilege and pain… While we’re laughing, we feel disgust. It’s a combination that makes for diamond-hard entertainment.
Darkly hilarious... [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.
The best literary novel (and best book, full stop) that I read in 2019 was My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. It is that incredibly rare book hyped as being "hilarious" which is actually funny... It's also a devastating satire of WASP culture, psychiatrists and New York. (Adrian McKinty)
[My Year of Rest and Relaxation is] a laugh-out-loud page-turner... it’s also the best 9/11 novel I’ve read.
Moshfegh’s blackly funny new novel… [hits] multiple marks at once: as an art-school prank, a between-the-lines tale of displaced grief and a pitiless anatomy of gender injustice, it also offers… a dark state-of-America fable.
All stars
Most relevant
My favourite read so far this year; Moshfegh fast becoming a favourite author of mine. This as good as her Booker long listed Eileen.

Moshfegh’s writing is gritty, raw and as honest as it gets. Her female protagonists are flawed yet immensely likeable. A novel about dealing with loss and grief. I could see the end coming however when it did arrive, it shook with an intensity I haven’t felt in a novel for a very long time.

Excellent, just phenomenal.

A raw delight from start to finish

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Although no one is likeable - actually I quite like that, occasionally - it is such a treat to get right into the mind of someone totally deranged, but still sane and so unbelievably calculating.

Most of the ending was predictable and there are no conclusions. May be I shouldn't mind that.

Just that life throws stuff at you, often at the worst time And yet, even that may trigger something good. I listened three times, and still got something extra each time. It's not on my top 10 books of the year, so far, but nearly.

Frankness can cleanse the soul. Utterly original.

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Annoying to get through. Narration is decent, the character is insufferable. I agree with people who think this is obnoxious.

It's a no from me

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In fairness to the author no doubt original and talented, this is well written and keeps a steady pace . My daughter, an avid reader, has said this is her fav book of all time. I didn’t get the same out if it. Maybe it’s reflective of perceived norms for a younger generation - Casual crazy abuse of drugs to numb the mind, a horribly dysfunctional, degrading and depressing sexual relationship, a very articulate protagonist and a sweetly endearing best friend. A huge hit for some - it may or may not be your thing but I can’t dismiss it because my daughter loved it and found almost every page laugh out loud.

My 17 Yr old daughters fav book of all time. I didn’t get it

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I was sceptical the whole time reading this but by the end it was worth it. the audible production was absolutely perfect. and I think i wouldn't have been able to get through the end if not for listening to it. I'd recommend it though

a beautiful take on mental health

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