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Beautiful World, Where Are You: Author of normal people Hardcover – International Edition, September 7, 2021
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Beautiful World, Where Are You Is Rooney's Best Novel. THE TIMES
*The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller*
*Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards*
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
Rooney's best novel yet. Funny and smart, full of sex and love and people doing their best to connect.'
Brandon Taylor , NEW YORK 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 INDEPENDENT
Brilliantly done: gripping, steamy, unbearably sad.
TELEGRAPH
- Print length337 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFaber and Faber
- Publication dateSeptember 7, 2021
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100571365426
- ISBN-13978-0571365425
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Product details
- Publisher : Faber and Faber; International Edition (September 7, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 337 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0571365426
- ISBN-13 : 978-0571365425
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.98 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,844,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,956 in Wall Maps
- #45,006 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #139,356 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
SALLY ROONEY was born in the west of Ireland in 1991. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta and The London Review of Books. Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2017, she is the author of Conversations with Friends and the editor of the Irish literary journal The Stinging Fly.
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Navel gazing in Rooney’s book is organic and watchful. She writes her literary opuses as if they were screenplays. I’m not talking about just the filmic quality of the narrative. But in BEAUTIFUL WORLD, as in all three of her novels to date, you could pluck the breathtaking images right from the words themselves. The dialogue, characters, and story are three dimensional, and every scene pops and delivers and allows you to interpret on your own terms.
BEAUTIFUL WORLD touches on themes of beauty, celebrity, social media, mental health, friendship, love, the continuum between friendship and love, and the fluidity of attraction. As always, I feel that the author connects deeply with the reader as she writes. Even when the tone is wry, tense, or accusing between characters, I feel that Rooney’s people are always evolving and in motion. Rooney isn’t rigid but she is decisive. Her cast comes with an implied background of unease, or lofty principles that they themselves have problems achieving. They are searching for love and identity, and also a culture class that they can brandish or even hide behind. This new novel revolves around two best friends, Alice and Eileen, and the men most important in their lives at the time.
As in all Rooney’s books, one character is a writer (sometimes she has more than one). Alice has achieved literary fame after two novels (like Rooney, although I won’t make the mistake of thinking Alice is based on Rooney), and then had a mental breakdown. It is obvious that she isn’t that egocentric about her fame; in fact, she chooses a boyfriend much less intelligent than her who doesn’t even read books.
Her typical form of communication with her best friend, Eileen, is email. They contain some scintillating content and background info, and move both character and plot along, or give the reader a bridge between times. So when Eileen and Alice eventually see each other again (Eileen is living in Dublin, Alice by the sea), you just know there’s a climax coming. (Eileen is actually living in the house Alice abandoned when she went into treatment). You feel the tension.
And when I said that her novels are like cinema? I think this one is more theater, like a play. You’ll see when you read it, but the scenes usually include little details about the environment when a character is doing something, such as: “…sitting on her bed scrolling on her phone… On the floor, a discarded cardigan, her swimsuit with its straps tangled, sandals with the buckles hanging open. On the bedside table a lamp with a pleated pink shade.” The stage is set a particular way. It’s like seeing a play, where you are riveted to the stage, and the play and your life have merged.
Simon and Eileen have known each other since childhood (he’s 5 years older than her) and their relationship was Platonic for many years, although Simon has always been hard to pin down. Felix is Alice’s new boyfriend, and there are a few stunners of information about him that are revealed early.
If you are a Rooney fan, you’ve already read the book and are just checking out what other readers are saying. Is Alice really Sally? No, of course not, but it is a little bit meta-, as Alice does criticize people on Twitter for judging her life and her boyfriend, as if they know her. (I imagine many celebs feel this way.) Her readers do act on social media as if they are involved in Alice’s life--like her friend or cousin. Shows you how creepy we can be. We all do it sometimes--judge someone famous for making certain choices with their lives! But, Rooney doesn’t act superior when she writes a scene this way. Her nuanced portraits are unguarded, even when her characters are leery or calculating. Rooney mesmerizes when she points out their darker sides.
What I wanted to say is that if you are already a Rooney fan, then there’s nothing I can tell you other than to read it, and you won’t be disappointed. If you are new to her, prepare to love her or hate her. She writes her familiar geography--Dublin. Her characters are mostly about her age, and like her character, Alice, she writes about friends and lovers. Rooney does that SO WELL! That is why she is so beloved. Scenes are vivid, like her characters, and I become invested in them. So when they feel a cleaving, so will I. And most Rooney readers will, too. She is wise, piercing, and intuitive with the narrative form. Her stories are convincing because the texture feels like authentic material.
Rooney will follow a character into a murky tunnel and come out the other side with the bright sun shining or peeling off skin. She decides and we interpret. Or she can say it all in a few keen words, taking the context and subtexting the hell out of it. It’s almost always through the characters, like a play. Rooney doesn’t describe geography except to add mood/atmosphere to the story. Settings are in a room or a space, indoors or out, where you can feel the boundaries when they are crossed. Her characters are urgent with the world they live in, fearful and fearless simultaneously. And constantly thinking, feeling, desiring.
“It was like God had put his hand on my head and filled me with the most intense desire I had ever felt, not desire for another person, but desire to bring something into being that had never existed before…I knew what I had to do, and I did it, that was all.”
I’m so thrilled that Rooney has this talent to share with the world. I’m a superfan, a wide-eyed votary, so I can get away with saying…gulp…it’s a more beautiful world because Sally Rooney’s talent is in it.
#andreeareviews
This is my second Sally Rooney book (after which I bought everything she ever wrote). The book tackles the complexity of relationships and mental health while living in a system not meant to support our well-being.
The friendship between Alice Kelleher, a successful Irish novelist, and Eileen Lyon, an editor at a literary magazine, is at the centre of the book. After having a mental breakdown, Alice retreated out of the public eye to a vast rectory house on the Irish coast. Living on her own, Alice goes on a few dates with a local she met on Tinder, Felix, and the two start a relationship. They are an unexpected pair: Felix works in a shipping warehouse after making a mess of his life, barely making it from salary to salary; Alice is a wildly famous novelist. Their different social status appears in their conversations and interaction, being, at first, an area of conflict (and maybe a subtle sense of inferiority from Felix).
Meanwhile, Eileen lives in Dublin and has a complicated relationship with his long-time friend, Simon. Their current relationship can be best described as a complicated situationship. Eileen is recovering from a breakup in a long-term relationship by seeking solace in Simon’s company, who is her oldest friend. On the other hand, Simon has a habit of dating much younger women. Eileen and Simon have been friends since childhood. She considers the possibility of dating Simon, who has been by her side, supporting her through all her hardship since she was a teenager. However, she doesn’t want to endanger their friendship and deep connection.
The relationships between the four people grow throughout the book; the characters themselves grow and transform and find themselves or find meaning in their lives. There are deep conversations, difficulties in dealing with intimacy, socially tense situations, and even self-sabotage of own desires and relationships. There are fights, reconciliations, cold interactions, and emotionally charged situations.
The friendship between Alice and Eileen is complicated. They met in college, and while Eileen struggles to find meaning and passion in her writing, Alice has found fame. However, Alice also struggles with mental health issues and an inability to have a social life. Their interactions are filled with tension - Alice complaining about the side effects of success to a struggling Eileen, whose pay is ridiculous at her current job. They agree that our world is complicated and downright hostile from multiple perspectives (emotions and mental health, climate change, economics, and morality). While Alice is far from Dublin, they exchange numerous letters. However, Eileen only visits Alice months later. There is tension between them, hidden under their social criticism (they debate everything from politics to religion).
In the style that got me hooked in Conversation with Friends, Rooney continues her deep conversation and philosophical analysis of the current world. I enjoyed the correspondence between Alice and Eileen more than the plot of the book per se. They are beautiful prose, and raw, soul-baring self-dialogue, that tackle complex modern topics with utmost sincerity.
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Me llegó en excelentes condiciones.
100% recomendado.
"Beautiful World, Where Are You: A Novel" by Sally Rooney is a literary masterpiece that left me truly captivated. Rooney's talent for weaving intricate narratives and exploring the complexities of human relationships shines brightly in this novel.
Compelling Characters: The characters in this book feel incredibly real and relatable. Rooney has a unique ability to delve deep into their inner worlds, making you feel as though you're intimately acquainted with each of them. You'll find yourself drawn into their lives, their thoughts, and their struggles.
Thought-Provoking Themes: "Beautiful World, Where Are You" explores themes of love, friendship, mental health, and the search for meaning in a world that often feels chaotic. Rooney's thought-provoking prose invites readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships.
Intelligent and Poetic Writing: Rooney's writing is nothing short of brilliant. Her prose is both intelligent and poetic, which makes for a delightful reading experience. Each sentence feels carefully crafted, and the narrative flows effortlessly.
Deep Exploration of Modern Society: The novel also provides a profound exploration of modern society, touching on issues like technology's impact on human connection and the pursuit of authenticity in a world filled with artifice.