This book explores the characters thought relationships and sex, making you feel the most raw emotion that you can feel and looks at the relationship we have in the late 20s, I really enjoyed this book, felt the ending was wrapped up abit quick, but beautifully written as always

Well, I've only read a chapter but I can see that I'm already very intrigued. Alice and Felix have this mysterious vibe going on and I can't wait to know more about them and also to get to know the other two main characters that are mentioned in the plot of the book. I'm very looking forward to reading the whole book in September!

This is just a short excerpt from Sally Rooney's upcoming novel Beautiful World, Where Are You. The piece depicts a first date between a couple in Ireland. Because it's Rooney, the writing is terrific with great attention to detail. Hard to make any more judgements about the novel as the extract is very short. It leaves me excited for the novel's release.

I received an e-galley preview in return for this review.

This excerpt was really interesting. I loved Sally Rooney's work and i'm looking forward to buying this book as soon it is released.

This was classic Sally Rooney. I am really looking forward to reading more - it seems that this is going to be exactly what we have come to expect from Sally Rooney.

I adore Sally Rooney. She writes the most realistic characters, and the most heartbreaking plots.
This is a short extract of Rooney's upcoming release. Im even more intrigued and excited now for the full book to be released.
Eeeek!

Chapter One, which was provided by Faber & Faber, took 8 minutes to read and opens with

“A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door.”

It is clearly set in Ireland – as one would expect of Rooney – and recounts a less than successful date between Alice, a writer who has recently moved into the town, and Felix, a local man who works in “a warehouse outside town”. Drinks are shared, the relations between them somewhat testily explored. As with Normal People, even on this first date communication was less than easy and Alice in particular seems difficult and little defensive. However, she is willing to invite Felix back to her house, the Rectory we discover, and to see her bedroom…

The language is beautiful in its simplicity, and also somewhat distances us from Alice and Felix. Rooney is really excellent at showing rather than telling – there is exquisite dialogue and no internal monologue – and on only one chapter it is hard to feel that I got to know the characters. But then, you don’t after a single date, do you?

Will be see Felix and Alice again in the novel? I suspect so and I predict that their less than stellar first date will develop into a relationship. And I am definitely intrigued by Alice.

I also like the fact that these characters seem older than those in Normal People. Old enough to have careers and to be beyond the Millenial label.

The final line of the chapter is a little unsettling as it directly addresses the reader with an imperative invitation:

“Follow her eyes now and notice the bedroom door left open, a slice of white wall visible through the banister posts.”

Synopsis
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?

One month to go and I am definitely waiting outside our local bookshop to buy this on publication day!

Loved this first chapter! I love Sally's unique writing and formatting of books. This first chapter grabbed my attention right away, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book!

This extract definitely leaves me wanting more! Intrigued to find out more about the couple. Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber.

After reading this extract, I have immediately pre-ordered Beautiful World, Where Are You. This looks like it will be another Sally Rooney classic that I will be recommending to everyone I know! Thank you NetGalley for the extract.

A date that looks like a blind date. He works in a depot, she is a successful writer originally from Dublin just moved temporarily to a town that people usually leave (Ballina is mentioned, so we might be in Co. Mayo). Awkward conversation, oblique, millennial-style: what matters is the unspoken, class, gender and power dynamics. Toward the hand Rooney takes us by the hand into the bedroom to suddenly blow up all our expectations.

There is all of Sally Rooney in this captivating extract that might as well read as a short story, and needless to say, it has left me wanting for more.

Thank you so much Faber & Faber for letting me read the first chapter via Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an extract of this book.

Not sure what I can really say after just one chapter. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thank you NetGalley and Faber and Faber for sending me an extract of the novel to read.

It is very difficult to judge the entire novel from the first chapter but Sally Rooney lays down the introductory scene very skilfully because it encourages the reader to turn the page and read further.

Who is this woman is sitting in a bar? Why has the companion she is waiting for arrive late? Does it show a lack of interest on his part? Has the date been set up online as the couple don’t seem to know each other? From the formal conversation we learn that the lady has recently moved to this town which seems strange because everyone else seems to be leaving it. We don’t know the location of the town—only that it is near the sea. She explains the circumstances of her stay but mysteriously ends the conversation with “so” and becomes nervous which makes the reader wonder if she is hiding something. Why does she drink more than she should? She invites her date home and takes him on a tour of the house ending in the bedroom. But he is bored and yawns and the tryst ends in failure.

Which reader would not be interested as to know what happens next.

I read an extract of Sally Rooney’s upcoming novel ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You?’. First of all, I will say I did my best to be impartial here. I previously read Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ and found myself somewhat underwhelmed by it, and the author’s writing style isn’t really for me. However, I still wanted to be inspired by this extract.

The chapter chosen in this excerpt was chapter 1, which describes a date between a man and a woman, and said woman has only recently moved to town. It’s clear to see that these two people are very different. However, she decides she’d like to show her date around her new home. I must say, I’m intrigued by the history surrounding her home, and I’m also interested in the fact that the character is herself an author - what kind of books does she write? How successful an author is she?

Overall, I would say I would be interested in reading the full book, when it is released.

All I can say after reading this excerpt is...I AM SO EXCITED to get my hands on this book on release day.

Beautiful World, Where Are You

Extract from the forthcoming novel by
Sally Rooney

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Sally Rooney is an “It Lit Girl”. Youthful, original and with two wildly successful novels “Conversations with Friends” and “Normal People,” under her belt and also a literary category to be Queen of - Millennial writers!
This new novel has us hooked from the start with its alluring title – don’t we all want a beautiful world- especially now.

It is a fact that millennials have their own 'speak" and Rooney’s assorted literary characters definitely do. Her literary “speak” is compelling, abbreviated, somewhat cold on the exterior, and tantalizingly up for different interpretations. Rooney, a lifelong Marxist, seems to be ‘largely concerned with the power dynamics of social groups. Social dynamics are powered by conversations, chats are big, as are phone texts, and the meaning of all hook-ups must be discussed. Get ready to deep dive into modern lovers minds and motivations. What happens between Alice the wandering Irish writer and Felix who works in a warehouse? Add in Eileen the best friend and Simon the childhood friend and it’s on! Bring on the whole book!

Miranda Y, Reviewer. 4 stars ( so far)

Sally Rooney does it again! What a cliffhanger! A Sally Rooney novel is never complete with just one chapter. Now you've piqued my interest. Excellent start to what I'm sure will be an epic novel. Her descriptions of human interactions and relationships are excellent, as they always are. I wish there was more than one chapter! I'll buy the book as soon as it's available.

This extract did exactly what it was intended to do, leave me wanting more! I enjoyed the tension between the characters and wondered what was coming next. As a Sally Rooney fan I will definitely be reading this title as soon as it comes out

I preordered Sally Rooney’s new novel Beautiful World, Where Are You as soon as it was announced. To be given the first chapter in advance by Netgalley and Faber and Faber is so bittersweet: I was so excited to get but it just leaves the reader wanting more. Roll on the 7th September - I cannot wait to read it all!

As a huge fan of Sally Rooney's work, I am unsurprised at how quickly even a short excerpt could get me hooked and eager to read her new work.

Rooney has a way with characters that is instantly gripping. So much is said in what isn't said. Even in the short passage provided here, the feeling that the two characters and settings create is relatable and familiar, but is also colder than what I'm used to with Rooney's previous works. I can't wait to read more.

I'm also so interested to see how Rooney will portray a character who is also a writer.

Cannot wait to read Beautiful World, Where Are You this September.