Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other; they delude each other; they get together; they break apart. They have sex; they worry about sex; they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Listening Length

10 hours and 4 minutes
Author

Sally Rooney
Narrator

Aoife McMahon
Audible release date

7 September 2021
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber
ASIN

B08SQQRX6H
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 4 minutes
Author	Sally Rooney
Narrator	Aoife McMahon
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	07 September 2021
Publisher	Faber & Faber
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08SQQRX6H
Best Sellers Rank	105 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 2 in Coming of Age Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 4 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 4 in Contemporary Romance (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		26%
4 star		33%
3 star		26%
2 star		11%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Didn't get all the hyper about this one.

Reviewed in Australia on 15 September 2021

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My first taste of Sally Rooney and sadly, probably my last. I didn't enjoy this book at all. I found it long winded and aimless (I feel like I was missing the point of it all?) Characters were obnoxious and not even likeable so I struggled to take to any of them. Those long winded emails were a drag to read! Started losing patience halfway in, and it didn't get any better. Ended up skimming the rest just to finish it. Here's a quick summary - Four people: they like each other, don't like each other, are intimate, then not intimate, and somewhat depressed. And that's it. Ending didn't offer any resolve or bring anything new.

7 people found this helpful

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Geraldine

Well, Thank God That's Over!

Reviewed in Australia on 16 November 2021

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I did not enjoy this book. I struggled to finish it. While there were many engaging passages, I found the long - winded ruminations on art, beauty, God etc. just so pretentious and unconvincing. And the characters didn't feel quite real. And the lengthy descriptions of everyday actions seemed irrelevant and pointless. The dialogues - do people actually talk like that? Do young people write emails? It all seemed so unnatural and staged. Very disappointing.

One person found this helpful

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Danger Mouse

Doesn’t stray far from the author’s other two novels

Reviewed in Australia on 30 September 2021

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If you are a fan of Irish millennial author, Sally Rooney, and her other two novels, Conversation with friends, and, Normal people, you are probably in for a treat. That is, unless you felt that these two works said everything you wanted hear on love, friendship and living as an intellectual, hip, 20 something in Ireland in our current times. All in all, the latest novel is an easy read. The style is economical and lean, like a contemporary Hemingway. It probably plays to Rooney’s strength in not straying to far thematically or narratively from Rooney’s other works. Worth a read.

One person found this helpful

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Hewy

Beautiful World

Reviewed in Australia on 15 October 2021

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Self-absorbed, self-indulgent.

The first half of the book was ‘scatty’ - characterisations very mixed up and hard to discern.

Uncontrolled.

Eventually the four main characters evolved, but as a reader my feelings about each constantly changed. As they changed? I don’t know.

Sadly Sally, I can’t recommend your new book.

One person found this helpful

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Janette Sheen

Absorbing, thoughtful with superb observations of both people and their surroundings

Reviewed in Australia on 13 December 2021

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In my reading, this is a book that not only explores relationships and their meaning but various approaches the ‘30 somethings’ take to the issues in living and in the world at large.

About two thirds of the way into the book I became so absorbed in what Sally Rooney was saying that I didn’t even pick up the phone when it rang

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Tara L. Vigouroux

Same same, but not different

Reviewed in Australia on 9 January 2022

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I really enjoyed Sally Rooney’s last two novels but this one just annoyed me. I was thinking “here we go again”. Another bunch of adults who can’t seem to articulate their thoughts or what they want. Back and forth it just got tiresome. Fingers crossed her next novel moves away from this storyline.

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Liz Coffey

Awful book

Reviewed in Australia on 10 November 2021

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I couldn't even finish it! The characters were all unlikable and self indulgent, especially the two females. Plus nothing happened.......boring non-story.

One person found this helpful

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Rudo

Soo good and yet soo bad

Reviewed in Australia on 13 December 2021

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An arduous read, with commentary that doesn't serve to advance the plot at all. When its good though its good

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Viking

Where’s the Beef?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2021

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Sally Rooney’s latest novel is beautifully packaged - she writes well. But to what end? A tale about four characters who spend their lives, when not arguing about the nature of beauty, seemingly unable to make any meaningful decisions. All four are flawed, and extremely irritating. There is no joy or laughter in their lives. They speculate about doomed humanity like teenagers, though they are supposed to be grown up. They try to pretend they are “ordinary”, when they are anything but. Unless that’s what passes for ordinary in Dublin. In that case, poor old Ireland. So, a shiny carapace with nothing worthwhile inside. The, probably inevitable, TV adaptation will have to work very hard not to be extremely boring.

134 people found this helpful

Leigh Meg

I'm going to say it because nobody else is, I'm fed up of Rooney apologists.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2021

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I was intensely disappointed by this one. At around the halfway mark I considered DNF'ing but decided to push on, and let me tell you - it was a tough slog to finish. This book is lacklustre in every sense of the word, something is missing. It doesn't have the same magic that Normal People has. After seeing droves of 5-star reviews, I figured this was probably a 'me' problem and not a problem with the book, but then I also feel like there are so many Sally Rooney apologists who will defend her work to the heavens and believe she is immune to any kind of critique (and I don't just mean the usual complaints about the blatant non-use of speech marks). Despite being very character driven, the characters are highly unlikable (this isn't quirky anymore, it's just kind of annoying) and they lack any emotional depth or emotional intelligence. It's like reading about 4 moody Tumblr teenagers with no self-awareness. A stronger sense of place would have really elevated this book but it was largely half-baked. The letters between narrators felt like space filler, veering off into topics that aren't pertinent to anything in the book (politics, the Bronze Age????). I'd struggle to recommend this to anyone.

122 people found this helpful

Jimbo

Lacking any substance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2021

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I’m not sure where to even begin to be honest. I try not to buy into hype with things, but this truly is a case of the emperor’s new clothes. The writing is nothing special, I’ve read so many excellent books this year, detransition, baby, Paul takes the form of a mortal girl, her body and other parties and all men want to know to name a few and the writing in this book pales horribly in comparison; it is nothing more than perfunctory. The pacing is awful, the boring emails are filler and more filler and the characters seem to have been rehashed from her previous two books.

Rooney has a penchant for writing pretentious and self-obsessed, but this book takes that to another (painful) level. I will admit it was a real grind for me to finish, but I just about managed it. I just assume it is trendy to say she’s brilliant, to take pictures of the book for the gram and to show you’re current and on the pulse- but it’s a tedious, meandering novel with not even a sliver of a saving grace.

89 people found this helpful

AmazonCustomer

beyond the hype, a very fine novel indeed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2021

Verified Purchase

Not quite sure where to begin, only that I very nearly didn't bother to read this novel because of the relentless hype around it. I find it all so toxic. To books, to writers, readers too. I was not a great fan of Normal People, thought it okay, but hyped. BWWAY is altogether different -- delicious, clever, wry, witty -- and left me with that rare tipsy feeling I sometimes get on finishing the book. I enjoyed it *enormously*.

33 people found this helpful

Alexandra

No speech marks. WHYYY?!?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2021

Verified Purchase

After reading normal people, and conversations with friends I was really looking forward to this. I’m currently reading a super heavy book and wanted to use this as a light read before bed. Unfortunately I ended up completely disappointed, as for some reason they’ve decided to remove speech marks (basic punctuation), which completely ruins the flow of the book. Very disappointed.

37 people found this helpful

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Beautiful World, Where Are You Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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