Men in Love cover art

Men in Love

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Choose life. Choose love? The Trainspotting crew fall for rave and romance in the blazing new novel from the No.1 bestseller.

It is the late 1980s, the closing years of Thatcher’s Britain. For the Trainspotting crew, a new era is about to begin – a time for hope, for love, for raving.

Leaving heroin behind and separated after a drug deal gone wrong, Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie each want to feel alive. They fill their days with sex and romance and trying to get ahead; they follow the call of the dance floor, with its promise of joy and redemption.

Sick Boy starts an intense relationship with Amanda, his ‘princess’ – rich, connected, everything that he is not. When the pair set a date for their wedding, Sick Boy sees a chance for his generation to take control at last.

But as the 1990s dawn, will finding love be the answer to the group’s dreams or just another doomed quest?

© Irvine Welsh 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Dark Humour Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Urban World Literature Funny Thought-Provoking Inspiring

Critic reviews

Like all his best work, Men in Love is propulsive, hilarious and bittersweet in equal measure, as wise on the curdling of intense teenage friendships as it is on the early, doomed attempts we embark on in our twenties to settle down and fall in love
The simple ease and joy with which he [Welsh] reinhabits these vivid characters makes this his paciest, funniest, most page-turning book in years
These characters remain alive on the page, more than 30 years on
There’s no slacking in either the pace or the energy of the prose. Chapters alternate the cacophonous voices of the four [Trainspotting crew members]… their words sing off the page… What Welsh does so brilliantly [is] mixing registers and revealing the unsuspected depths in his characters
Brilliant
The arrival of Trainspotting was an earth-shaking cultural moment and it had a huge influence on me… It shines with humour and friendship. Every character here is alive (DOUGLAS STUART, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo (on Trainspotting))
A new book by Irvine Welsh is always an event… No living author is as entertaining to read, or as skilled at capturing the ambivalence and beauty of male friendships
Expertly funny and tender
The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent
So propulsive...about as much fun as you can have between two book covers
All stars
Most relevant
Great story, but I have to agree with the other comments about the narration. Everything is too overstated as if he’s reading Shakespeare, and the accents are awful. It’s like Ford Keirnan’s terrible actor character Ronald Villiers is reading it. Hard to listen to.

Brutal narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The, at times, shocking rendition of incidents by the Leith boys, is so eloquently & accurately reproduced by the reader (using the author’s cues) to give an intriguing listen. Started the audiobook again straight after first listen. Highly recommended.

Talented author & phenomenal performance by reader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great fun if you, like me , love the characters. The narrator gets the gang’s voices spot on , close your eyes and you could be listening to the films.
If you liked train spotting it’s a must listen.

Voice acting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the whole story and each character, it would be great if there was another sequel.

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tam Dean-Burn gives a genius performance. The story is great fun, with the usual suspects doing the usual suspect things. Just keep them coming gadgey.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews