Exciting Times cover art

Exciting Times

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Exciting Times

By: Naoise Dolan
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children.

Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'.

Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to.

And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong....

©2019 Naoise Dolan (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Literature & Fiction Witty Funny China

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Dear Lily cover art
Boy Parts cover art
How to Kill Your Family cover art
Julia cover art
This Is Not About You cover art
The Rachel Incident cover art
Scythe cover art
The Echo Chamber cover art
All stars
Most relevant
At times I really loves this book - you can feel the author's voice through it. At times it felt quite 'jolt-y' but nonetheless it completely made up for that in all other areas, especially at the end when I was like 'noooo I've got to see this arrgghhh' which I thought was a brilliant was to show myself how drawn into the story I had become. Language, culture, story and voice are all very cleverly written. Bravo.

Would be very happy to listen again

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My only disappointment was that Naoise Dolan hasn’t written another book yet. I have stolen some of her lines and will definitely drop them into my conversations to make me sound more entertaining than I actually am.

As sharp as a paper cut.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A book about politics and class but the main character is the language we call English.

It is a book I plan to re read as the story has many layers. Next however I will read it without audible narration. This is in no way meant to criticise the narration as it is very good and helped get an understanding of the overarching narrative in a way I don't think I would have fully appreciated fully had I read text alone on a first read.

However to fully appreciate the genius of this novel I feel you may also need to read it slowly, carefully and marvel at how it is put together linguistically.

Speaking personally I like how the narrator in the novel (not to be confused with audible narration necessarily) is also a proud socialist!

A book that plays beautifully with language

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book is written as a stream of consciousness that flows effortlessly from one page to the next. It’s stimulating, intriguing and funny. Highly recommended.

Beautifully written and narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was 'quite' gripped by this book. far more of a character portrait than a plot-driven novel. i wasn't surprised to see that the author, Naiose, pronounced Nisha, had sought a diagnosis for autism after writing this book. The thoughts of the protagonist Ava were beautifully original and complex! A real brave and fantastic piece from the author weaving her own kind of thinking into the story, I assume. Just great, original, insightful, witty, analytical and wonderfully draws on linguistics to propel the tale because Ava is a TEFL teacher in Hong Kong, and from Ireland. And the reader is superb at bringing it all to life.

unusual insight

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