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  • Beautiful World, Where Are You

  • By: Sally Rooney
  • Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
  • Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (1,891 ratings)

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Beautiful World, Where Are You

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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Summary

*The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller*

*Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards*

*A Book of the Year in The Times, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Financial Times*

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 worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

©2022 Faber & Faber (P)2022 Faber & Faber
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Critic reviews

'Beautiful World, Where Are You is Rooney's best novel.' The Times

'A tour de force.' Anne Enright, Guardian

'Rooney's best novel yet.' Brandon Taylor, New York Times

What listeners say about Beautiful World, Where Are You

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Uplifting and refreshing

Lovely innocent book that has uplifted me and motivated me to re start reading .

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hardly gripping

Sometimes I struggled to stay focused with this audio book but overall not bad

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

It was fine but no more.

Well narrated. Some very interesting ideas. I found Felix & Alice's side hard work.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A nice but unbalanced book

The first half of the book was quite interesting but at about 40-80% of the book it become unreadable/unlistenable. Not a lot happens in this book and yet there is so much dialogue that is mainly Sally Rooney describing things that don’t need to be described. The final 20% was interesting and actually contained something other than a description of each characters every movement and surrounding.
The narrator is great. There are some NSFW parts that I wasn’t expecting and don’t really add much to the story besides explicit detail of the characters sex. Overall, I doubt I will be reading this again but it wasn’t horrible. Overall 3.5 stars

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A keyhole view of real lives

The author’s expertise is perceptively and sympathetically portraying the feelings and emotions of ordinary people.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful writing

It is very well written, introducing real characters with flaws who can be hard to like, in them we glimpse ourselves, the messiness of youth, love, sex and friendship. So much talent, writing to envy, I enjoyed reading it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Please god save us from this narrator!

The narrator is so awful I could only manage a a few chapters. She gives male characters voices as if they have no depth or individuality. It’s quite incredible that she got to destroy all three of Rooney’s books. Read them if you can, don’t listen to them.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful

Unbelievable, I really really loved this novel which was enhanced by the reader, Aoife McMahon.
I could listen to this again, quite happily.
It was so touching and descriptive and emotional, it just simply got to me.
I look forward to Sally’s next novel and hope Aoife will be reading it, if it’s set in Northern Ireland.
Thankyou, to you both. This will stay in my heart.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great

In my 30s. Loved hearing from characters who sound like friends and eavesdropping on the conversations we don’t always have time to have.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant narration

I had already read this book when it came out but fancied a reread. Dare I say the audio narration of this book made me love the story even more, because the humour and nuance through the philosophical discussions came through a lot better! Loved it

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