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Few authors capture the twentysomething experience in all its joyful, messy glory like best-selling Irish author Sally Rooney (Normal People). Her third novel follows highly intellectual best friends Alice and Eileen as they navigate their politics, insecurities, and love lives via lengthy and emotional emails. We loved getting to know these two relatable heroines and getting wrapped up in their personal and professional entanglements. Alice, a successful writer, meets a gruff yet charming warehouse worker on a dating app and brings him to Rome on a whim. Eileen struggles with a humdrum job at a literary journal and a not-so-platonic relationship with her childhood best friend. So many of Alice’s and Eileen’s experiences hit home, from stalking an ex to dropping an “I love you” with someone who doesn’t feel the same. Narrator Aoife McMahon’s varied Irish accents only make the experience more real—and more charming. So put in your earbuds, press play, and get ready to cringe and cheer for Rooney’s complex, lovable characters.
It’s hard to say what fascinates the wildly popular Irish author Sally Rooney more: young love or the doomsday vibes of the 21st century. Her third novel explores both themes with aplomb, following two friends on the brink of turning 30. Alice, a famous writer, moves to western Ireland to recuperate from a mental breakdown, leaving her bestie, Eileen, alone in Dublin to handle a dead-end job and the fallout of a breakup. In a series of email exchanges, the women detail their tumultuous love affairs and share heady musings on religion, nationalism, and their relationship with a society seemingly hell-bent on destruction. “When we should have been reorganising the distribution of the world’s resources...we were worrying about sex and friendship instead,” Eileen writes. This conflict of priorities sums up a Rooney novel. With Beautiful World, Where Are You, she exquisitely captures the feeling of living in the shadow of an uncertain future while trying to appreciate the grace of our intimate relationships.
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