Expectation cover art

Expectation

 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.

Expectation

By: Anna Hope
Narrated by: Vinette Robinson
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

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Expectation by Anna Hope, read by Vinette Robinson.

Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry – and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.

Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life?

EXPECTATION is a novel of the highs and lows of friendship – how it can dip, dive and rise again. It is also about finding your way: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel. Most of all, it explores that liminal space between expectation and reality, the place – full of dreams, desires and pain – in which we all live our lives.

City Life Coming of Age Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Urban Women's Fiction Marriage Heartfelt

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Temple of Fortuna cover art
The Rachel Incident cover art
So Lucky cover art
The Three Loves of Sebastian Cooper cover art
Who Do You Love cover art
Granta cover art
Just for Today cover art
The Sapphire Cove cover art
The Butterfly Garden cover art
Grand cover art
Flamingo cover art

Critic reviews

Profoundly intelligent and humane. Deserves to feature on many a prize shortlist
A brilliant exploration of friendship, feminism and thwarted ambition
One of the most intensely readable novels I've encountered this year
I loved it . . . 10 out of 10!
Will resonate with approximately 99 % of all women
Thoughtful, beautifully written, honest. A sensual book. I URGE YOU TO READ IT
Brilliant portrayal of long-term female friendships . . . I was gripped.
A Sally Rooney-esque evocative examination of female friendship
The real joy of this novel – while exploring just what second wave feminism has done for this generation of women (“you’ve had everything… we changed the world for you. For our daughters. And what have you done with it?”) – is in it’s writing; the dialogue and the honesty behind these characters who are doing their best, who are trying to live up to the fictional counterparts that they themselves have created… It’s the perfect summer reading
Absolutely encapsulates what it means to be a young woman today, and beyond
All stars
Most relevant
This book was mentioned on the podcast the high low as I looked through the list of books the girls recommended this one caught my eye.
I just loved it. How Anna hope discusses real life with all its problems is just so exact it’s just so real.
I loved it and would thoroughly recommend it. Bravo Anna hope.

What a wonderful book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a stunning book. It is, quite simply, perfect. This book is about the body, it’s fragility, it’s fluids, inconvenient desires and leakages, joys and pains, but most of all it is about life’s certainties: friendship and change.

Utterly extraordinary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The main take away from 'Expectation' is that I thought it was really wonderfully descriptive. The way the author describes different settings in and around London along with particular spots in markets where the characters get delicious sounding food and wine from is really enchanting. And, having not ever lived in London, it made me feel a sense of nostalgia. The narrator's tone as well only added to this feeling. There were some excellent moments throughout that I felt really compelled by and felt connected to certain characters.

My only quibble is that I found overall that the book lingers in a constant state of melancholy. The melancholy was of course warranted in correlation to the characters consistent turmoil, however, there were just few moments that felt like they dipped in momentum and I felt a little exhausted listening.

Perhaps though, this was intentional to reflect the characters each questioning their positions on, and in life.

Nostalgic, melancholic and poetic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great narration and loved the story across time through their friendship and motherhood. Great book.

Very enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book was interesting in terms of storyline, I got a little lost sometimes with which character was speaking etc but it might have been because I was listening to it in the background. Was good

Was interesting/good to listen to

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