My Year of Rest and Relaxation cover art

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

By: Ottessa Moshfegh
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Random House presents the audiobook edition of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, read by Julia Whelan.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2019

FROM THE MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF EILEEN

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

Our narrator has many of the advantages of life: Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents in college, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her alleged best friend.

Blackly funny, both merciless and compassionate – dangling its legs over the ledge of 9/11 – My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a showcase for the gifts of one of America’s major young writers.

©2019 Ottessa Moshfegh (P)2019 Penguin Audio Dark Humour Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Witty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Boy Parts cover art
Best Friends Forever cover art
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See cover art
The Virgin Suicides cover art
A Certain Hunger cover art
Scary Old Sex cover art
Remember Me cover art
Sin with Me cover art
The Wandering Inn cover art
Invisible Monsters cover art
Dry cover art
Total Exposure cover art

Critic reviews

"Savage, funny, frequently on the verge of teetering into lunacy...My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a non-negotiable in your holiday carry-on this summer." (Vogue)
All stars
Most relevant  
The voice actors performance, elevates this story so so much.

Thoroughly enjoyed the story and it’s wonderful in its own right but was made all the better by the voice performance.

Wonderful performance by Julia Whelan

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was an easy listen but I couldn’t really relate and didn’t connect with the characters.

Not really for me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great listen and I am sure I’ll listen again. I was a little skeptical at first but I must say I was not disappointed one bit. I would highly recommend.

I loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story is quite unlike anything else I’ve read. The narrator is unkind and self absorbed, but I was fascinated by what she was doing and totally absorbed by her strange quest for sleep and ultimately for a time out of life. It is a strange journey, with a drug intake like something out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but the travel is all internal.

I loved this book and was deeply engaged with the tale of privilege and pain, a grief that hasn’t been felt yet and a quest for numbness.

The performance was excellent and the actress was perfect in this role. A great listen.

A spiky, idiosyncratic tale of grief and recovery

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
“If I had to read the book, I probably wouldn’t finish it. It’s quite depressing and sad, though the narrator really brings out the best parts of the story. Somehow, it’s captivating and keeps me listening until the end. It’s a depressing book, but it’s wonderful in its own way.”

Wonderful narrator!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really like Otessa Moshfagh's writing - as aserbic as a feminized Brett Easton Ellis for the 21st century - but has there ever been an author that writes stories where so little happens.
At least Eileen built to something. The climax here is essentially a big sleep. Don't doubt that title!

Does what it says on the tin

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Who says you have to like the protagonist? You just have to enjoy the ride. And that I did. But then again I have a soft spot for pretentious rambling women with depression.

Fantastic and beautifully unhinged

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought this was a travelogue (LOL!) - little did I know! Research for this book must have been an eye opener!

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The characters were incredibly well written. I hated the main character, but it was really engaging

Enthralling tale of a hateful person

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well I found this really interesting and listened to it all in a day. The story drags a bit in the middle but the whole story feels very real emotionally. Narrator is excellent. It's a bit like Americian Psycho in style with added bitterness.

Excellent narration, interesting idea

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews