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Beautiful World, Where Are You
Cover of Beautiful World, Where Are You
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Borrow Borrow

'Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney's best novel.' THE TIMES
The *new* novel from the internationally bestselling author of Normal People.
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a 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 worry about sex and friendship 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?
'A tour de force. The dialogue never falters, and the prose burns up the page.'
GUARDIAN
'Rooney's strongest writing thus far . . . There is a touching honesty and truthfulness in these pages, along with a quiet brilliance.'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'The book moved me to tears more than once . . . Rooney's best novel.'
THE TIMES
'Written with immense skill and illuminated by an endlessly incisive intelligence.'
IRISH TIMES
'Beautiful World, Where Are You is not just worth reading. It's worth thinking about.'
IRISH INDEPEDENT
'Brilliantly done: gripping, steamy, unbearably sad.'
TELEGRAPH

'Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney's best novel.' THE TIMES
The *new* novel from the internationally bestselling author of Normal People.
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a 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 worry about sex and friendship 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?
'A tour de force. The dialogue never falters, and the prose burns up the page.'
GUARDIAN
'Rooney's strongest writing thus far . . . There is a touching honesty and truthfulness in these pages, along with a quiet brilliance.'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'The book moved me to tears more than once . . . Rooney's best novel.'
THE TIMES
'Written with immense skill and illuminated by an endlessly incisive intelligence.'
IRISH TIMES
'Beautiful World, Where Are You is not just worth reading. It's worth thinking about.'
IRISH INDEPEDENT
'Brilliantly done: gripping, steamy, unbearably sad.'
TELEGRAPH

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  • Library copies:
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About the Author-
  • Sally Rooney is the author of the novels Conversations with Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You. She was the winner of the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award in 2017. Normal People ('the literary phenomenon of the decade', Guardian) was the Waterstones Book of the Year 2019, won the Costa Novel of the Year 2018 and the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award 2019. Sally Rooney co-wrote the television adaptation of Normal People which was broadcast on the BBC in 2020.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    Starred review from July 5, 2021
    Rooney (Normal People) continues her exploration of class, sex, and mental health with a cool, captivating story about a successful Irish writer, her friend, and their lovers. Alice Kelleher, 29, has suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of her work’s popularity. After moving from Dublin to a small seaside town, she meets Felix, a local with a similar background—they both grew up working-class, and both have absent fathers—who works in a shipping warehouse. She invites him to accompany her to Rome, where he falls in love with her but resents what he takes to be her superior attitude. Meanwhile, in Dublin, Alice’s university friend Eileen Lydon works a low-paying literary job and explores her attraction to a childhood friend who seems to return her feelings but continues seeing other women. Alice and Eileen update each other in long emails, which Rooney cleverly exploits for essayistic musings about culture, climate change, and political upheaval. Rooney establishes a distance from her characters’ inner lives, creating a sense of privacy even as she describes Alice and Eileen’s most intimate moments. It’s a bold change to her style, and it makes the illuminations all the more powerful when they pop. As always, Rooney challenges and inspires. Agent: Tracy Bohan, the Wylie Agency.

  • AudioFile Magazine Narrator Aoife McMahon's voice makes the conflicts of Millennials beautiful in today's messy world. Author Sally Rooney presents a tableau of Irish friends--Eileen, Alice, Felix, and Simon--who wrestle with relationships, mental health, politics, and the purpose of life. McMahon's acting dexterity shows in seamless shifts between points of view, characters, and emotions. Male to female, white-collar to blue-collar, anger to passion--her crisp Irish accent makes these transitions with the lightness of a lark. Likewise, via McMahon, Rooney's peerless descriptions imprint upon the mind's eye. The listener won't soon forget a silk blouse caressed like a pet, freckled arms made pink by the sun, the coast of Ireland at nightfall, or the forgiveness of a best friend. A hopeful Millennial journey shines through McMahon's performance. E.S.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Title Information+
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    Faber & Faber
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    Public performance: 
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    All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.

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Sally Rooney
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