Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
An inside look at the varied relationships of millennials in
Hong Kong. Ava is fresh out of college,
teaching English as a foreign language in Hong Kong. The private school where
she works is tightly run, determined to give parents what they pay for, even if
the students don’t want it and even if it means teachers don’t have time for
bathroom breaks. From Dublin, where she
has been sad, Ava is giving Hong Kong a try. Here she meets other young people,
including Julian, a banker, with whom she had an intimate relationship, while both
insist they are not a couple.
Ava needs a place to live and can’t afford anything she
likes on her salary, so agrees to move in with Julian. While he is away on a
business trip, she meets another banker, Edith, a Hong Kong local, educated at
Cambridge. Their friendship blossoms
into romance, providing insight into Ava’s infatuation with Edith, Edith’s
feelings of inferiority, and of course Ava’s conflicted feelings about Julian.
There is a lot of navel gazing in the book, but relationship
books need that. The scenes with Ava’s
English students are fun and the reader gets to experience a facet of Hong Kong
not generally seen.
I read this as an advanced reader’s copy courtesy of Netgalley.
The book was published by Harper Collins and released June 2, 2020
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