• Beautiful World, Where Are You

  • A Novel
  • By: Sally Rooney
  • Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
  • Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (2,538 ratings)

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Beautiful World, Where Are You  By  cover art

Beautiful World, Where Are You

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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Publisher's summary

"[V]ia 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." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner)

Beautiful World, Where Are You is a new novel by Sally Rooney, the best-selling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends.

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 breakup, 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 have sex; they worry about sex; they worry about their friendships 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?

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following material:

Epigraph from "My Vocation", by Natalia Ginzburg, from The Little Virtues. Copyright © 1962, 1966, 1972, 1984, 1998, 2012, and 2015 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino. Originally published in Italian as Le Piccole Virtù. Translation copyright © 1985 Dick Davis. First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Carcanet, Manchester.

Excerpt from "How to Get There", by Frank O’Hara, from Lunch Poems. Copyright © 1964 by Frank O’Hara. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of City Lights Books, citylights.com. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from Within a Budding Grove, by Marcel Proust, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, The Modern Library, New York, copyright 1924.

Excerpt from The Waste Land, first published in 1922; copyright the Estate of T. S. Eliot. Reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2021 Sally Rooney (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Los Angeles Times Holiday Books Guide, 2021

New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2021

The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year, 2021

Financial Times Books of the Year, 2021

NPR Best Book of the Year, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2021

BuzzFeed Best Books of the Year, 2021

Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year, 2021

Time Magazine Best Books of the Year, 2021

USA Today Best Books of the Year, 2021

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, 2021

Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2021

Goodreads Choice Awards, 2021

Editor's Pick

This spoke to my hardened pandemic heart
There is nothing like a dependable writer. Sorry, does that sound boring? It's not. Sally Rooney is that rare author whom I can absolutely, 100% trust to be bowl-me-over brilliant. Aoife McMahon, who has narrated Rooney's two other books, continues to be the listening linchpin, providing distinct voices for Rooney's conversation-rich stories without slipping into caricature. And in Beautiful World, Where Are You, Rooney brings us so much amazing conversation; her four main characters—all fully fleshed out—orbit around each other in various modes of longing, despair, and hope. They seem surprised that adulthood has grabbed them by the ankle and is hanging on, as they flail for both freedom and security in equal measure. Though the book's events predate the tragedy of COVID, the four's restlessness foreshadows lockdown, and the story ends amidst the emergence of the pandemic. Yet strangely, and without giving any spoilers, I will say that Beautiful World, Where Are You left me more settled than Rooney's other works. This novel is an ode to people asking for, and finding, what they need in life. And it may be that what we all need most right now is a little peace. And the certainty of a great listen. —Emily C., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Beautiful World, Where Are You

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Beautiful novel, it's here

I'll be recommending this to my very best friends. It's lovely. Kind, poignant, great story. The narrator is excellent.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Maybe I didn’t understand it but….

I couldn’t get in to this one. I finished it (because I’m no quitter) thinking the story would click together but it never did. Maybe it’s one of those you have to read the words to understand…..not sure. I might come back to it to listen again to make sure but…..eh.

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

Annoying characters

The two female protagonists were their own worst enemies and despite the talented narrator, the story was just plain boring.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Must listen!

Sally Rooney is such an amazing and talented author. I enjoyed this book as much as her previous ones. I finished this book in 2 days! I couldn't turn it off. I will listen to this again, very soon. I just ordered a hard copy so I can follow along in Audible.
I loved the descriptive language Sally Rooney used in the book, but where it stuck out the most, to me, were in the letters.
Great Narrator!!!

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18 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Passes my test!

If I read a second book by an author and by the end say, I would’ve definitely read the first book if I had read this book first, then I would know that the author had certainly nailed it. And she has. Good job! I consider this a romance novel for contemporary-minded individuals. Read a regular romance and you’ll know what I’m talking about. This is definitely a love story And I’ll venture to say a romance between friends and lovers. It took me a while to understand the reason behind the letters between Eileen and Alice. But as I got further into the story, I begin to realize that as they grow and change the tone of your correspondence changed. And I do think that true love occurs when you find a partner who understands the pattern and disrupts it. And that’s why I say this is a romance. Good job Sally Roone, good job.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

If you enjoy reading books about moderately uninteresting people who process their emotions endlessly, but still fail to express what they’re really feeling, this might be the book for you. I had a hard time rooting for any of the characters, because I felt fairly indifferent about them. The writing was fine.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Mixed feelings

Good book. I definitely enjoyed it though a couple of times I considered turning it off and not turning it back on. I guess a few contrived things and at one point, I was truly hating Eileen. But altogether, I liked it. Very good narration - Cheers to Aiofe McMahon.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Decent, but the worst of the three

I believe that the main issue with this book is probably the previous two books, which are much better in terms of story and setting. also, the main characters remain separated through much of the story under interactions are done through letters, and I believe the richest parts of Rooney's books come from conversations from the different type of characters whereas in this book most of those are between lovers and finish up in sex scenes, which I believe are not so intriguing. Finally, Eileen's character really drop the ball for me through the third act of the book. on the good side the characters are solid the social interactions become interesting at a certain point and Rooney's narration is good as always.

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Must listen

Sally Rooney has done it again! Fantastic read. Interesting characters and character development amidst current events with sophisticated literary references. Thank you for writing a book with intelligent female characters and realistic conflicts.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

hmmm...

can't decide if I loved this or hated this. a good read for someone, such as myself, about to turn 30 and wondering what success looks like. but frustrating to endure 2 highly self involved females figuring out their own melodrama between sex scenes that range from awkward to mildly arousing.

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