Isolationcast #5: Naoise Dolan on autism and publishing into a pandemic

The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis

My guest for this week's Sunday Salon isolationcast is a really special one. I'm thrilled to have spoken to Naoise Dolan, author of the newly-released bestseller Exciting Times. One of the year's most hotly-tipped debuts, it tells the story of Ava, a young Irish woman teaching English in Hong Kong, and her romantic relationships with Julian, a rich banker, and Edith, a Hong Kong local who went to an English boarding school. Deadpan and sharp, it examines themes of class, sexuality and power.
I loved chatting to Naoise - as an autistic person, she was fascinating on her experience of lockdown, and how in some ways releasing a book under these circumstances has been a relief. We also discussed writing about queerness, giving up apologising and how it feels to be compared to Sally Rooney (the two are friends and Rooney published a preview of Exciting Times in the literary magazine The Stinging Fly). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Buy the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Exciting-Times-Naoise-Dolan/9781474613446

Twitter: @aliceazania / @NaoiseDolan

Instagram: @aliceazania / @naoisedolan

Edited by Chelsey Moore