
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
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Narrated by:
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Julia Whelan
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By:
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Ottessa Moshfegh
About this listen
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Amazon,Vice, Bustle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, The AV Club, & Audible
A New York Times Bestseller
“One of the most compelling protagonists modern fiction has offered in years: a loopy, quietly furious pillhead whose Ambien ramblings and Xanaxed b*tcheries somehow wend their way through sad and funny and strange toward something genuinely profound.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Darkly hilarious . . . [Moshfegh’s] the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.”—Vogue
From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?
My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.
©2018 Ottessa Moshfegh (P)2018 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“I don't think I'm ever going to get over Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation.”—Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
“Ottessa Moshfegh is easily the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible. She has a freaky and pure way of accessing existential alienation, as if her mind were tapped directly into the sap of some gnarled, secret tree. . . . Watching Moshfegh turn her withering attention to the gleaming absurdities of pre-9/11 New York City, an environment where everyone except the narrator seems beset with delusional optimism, horrifically carefree, feels like eating bright, slick candy—candy that might also poison you.”—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
“Darkly comic and ultimately profound new novel. . . . Moshfegh’s extraordinary prose soars as it captures her character’s re-engagement.”—Vendela Vida, New York Times Book Review

Editor's Pick
I woke right up for this dark comedy about sleeping
"Strong, world-conquering heroines are everywhere these days. I admire them, which might be why I’m also a bit bored of them. Thank God for Ottessa Moshfegh, who has a knack for making miserable characters eerily seductive (I see you and I love you, Eileen). At the center of My Year of Rest and Relaxation is another disdain-able type: a beautiful, privileged twentysomething who tries to escape her angst—aided by enough pharmaceuticals to make Hunter S. Thompson bat an eye—by sleeping all. The. Time. It’s a simple, ingenious plot that yields more narrative tension than you might think (I was reminded at times of The Girl on the Train’s blackout-induced mysteries), made all the juicier by Oshfegh’s razor-sharp insights, a send-up of the New York art scene, odes to Whoopi Goldberg, and world-weary narration by the amazing Julia Whelan. A lavish ending caps off this wholly original novel. Don’t sleep on it!"
— Kat J., Audible Editor
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Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
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A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
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The Bell Jar
- By: Sylvia Plath
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful but slowly going under - maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.
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A must-read for every woman
- By Julie W. Capell on 05-06-16
By: Sylvia Plath
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Death in Her Hands
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one. Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate.
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Omg get ON with it
- By Nicole Dreyfus on 06-24-20
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
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A Certain Hunger
- By: Chelsea G. Summers
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
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Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.
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Ugh.
- By Kimberly on 02-03-20
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Pizza Girl
- A Novel
- By: Jean Kyoung Frazier
- Narrated by: Jeena Yi
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial. She's grieving the death of her father, avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future.
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Writing
- By Tobyizme on 07-11-20
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Luster
- A Novel
- By: Raven Leilani
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Edie is stumbling her way through her 20s - sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage - with rules.
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Spellbinding
- By Nana on 08-07-20
By: Raven Leilani
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Big Swiss
- A Novel
- By: Jen Beagin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Carlotta Brentan, Stephen Graybill, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.
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12/10
- By Leah Fesi on 04-23-23
By: Jen Beagin
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Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- By: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
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Refreshing
- By Sadz on 11-22-22
By: Coco Mellors
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Death Valley
- A Novel
- By: Melissa Broder
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path discovered on a nearby hike. Out along the sun-scorched trail, the narrator encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door.
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Broder is the perfect narrator!
- By Barbara S on 10-22-23
By: Melissa Broder
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Normal People
- A Novel
- By: Sally Rooney
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life changing begins. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another.
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Difficult, but Worth It
- By kdiz on 04-03-20
By: Sally Rooney
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Milk Fed
- By: Melissa Broder
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control through obsessive food rituals while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting - until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her.
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Funny and uncomfortable
- By Kayla on 04-01-21
By: Melissa Broder
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Ripe
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Rose Etter
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets.
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EG, Sorry to say it doesn't get any better
- By Alexis_Vandew on 08-18-23
By: Sarah Rose Etter
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All's Well
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.
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Mixed bag but excellent performance
- By stuffbuyer on 09-22-21
By: Mona Awad
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Cursed Bread
- A Novel
- By: Sophie Mackintosh
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Still reeling in the aftermath of the deadliest war the world had ever seen, the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit collectively lost its mind. Some historians believe the mysterious illness and violent hallucinations were caused by spoiled bread; others claim it was the result of covert government testing on the local population.
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boring
- By Anonymous User on 02-23-25
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Rouge
- A Novel
- By: Mona Awad
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.
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What a fun romp!
- By Barbara S on 10-10-23
By: Mona Awad
What listeners say about My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gigi76
- 08-06-18
Surprising good!
I didn't think I was going to like this book, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I love this narrator, and she reads this oddball story as superbly as I knew she would.
Why do I like this book? I don't know. I just do.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Winifred Hinson
- 07-23-18
strange but absorbing
can't decide if this story is really true. unlike any memoir I have ever read. but totally worth reading
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7 people found this helpful
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- J.C.
- 08-03-18
Quite unusual
This is a unique story. There were times I was mesmerized by it and times I skipped forward a bit. The ending was a surprise and the very ending a shock. It kind of made the whole book worth it. Try it if you enjoy something different and told artistically in many ways. Narration was spot on. JC
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5 people found this helpful
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- GCS18
- 08-01-18
Many Thoughts
First of all, utterly original. And I live for original. Kind of figured out where it was going but it was subtle and kudos for that. Loved the narration. It was the person this book is about that left me wanting. Wanted more realism, more connection to people in her every day life. Just went a little too far for me. Also her “friends” were kind of flat and caricature-like. But yeah I would recommend it. Overall very interesting. Close to great.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Joanne Cunningham
- 08-25-20
What in the world???
I found this book searching Julia Whalen, she is my favorite narrator. I read the reviews and thought I would give it a shot.
I don’t know why or how I kept listening. This book was so weird and really made no sense. The main character was selfish and I’m not really sure what she wanted to accomplish. The rest of the characters were kind of boring.
If you are looking for something you’ve never read before this is the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Justin T. Grimbol
- 10-06-18
amazing. this is a new favorite.
hilarious and sad as hell. and gritty. best. so much best. and the endin... my god...
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- BannerQueen
- 09-10-18
A Lovely Lucid Fog of a Story
Even though I think it’s too easy to poke snarky disdain at the art world, Ottessa Moshfegh does it so well in this book. The American dream is personified through a privileged (yet tragic) New Yorker beauty who is trying to sleep away any emotional depth with truck loads of pharmaceuticals. The writing is fabulous and the narration perfect. It is funny, sad and very thoughtful surrealistic modern tale. My favorite book of the summer!
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- Shane M. Boltz
- 12-31-18
OK story, awesome performance.
Let's face it: there's not a lot going on here story-wise. There's a lot of self-deprecating humor, sarcasm and drug use and there were plenty of points where I was rolling my eyes hearing about this person born into privilege purposely destroying themselves for no good reason. But that's also what I love about it. It's a very human story, and the reading performance is honestly what sealed the deal for me even more-so than the story itself. I found it to be particularly refreshing to slough off some of the excess holiday cheer and wallow in the dregs for a bit; helps balance things out for me. This is definitely one that I feel you have to hit at the right time, otherwise it's gonna come off real flat and boring. And it is boring, and maybe that's the point. Who knows.
What I do know is that if you're feeling a little f*ck-it around the holidays and want to do all the drugs and not feel all the feels vicariously, then here's your ticket to ride my friends.
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- Brynna C Bloomfield
- 05-30-19
Best work by a reader I’ve heard
I may love this book for Julia Whelan’s work. The last book I read by Moshfegh was in print and the voice in my head must not have done it justice. I ordinarily prefer print, but Whelan’s reading is now the voice I will hear if I re-read this story in print. Every word is luscious. I ignored friends and work to listen to the end.
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- Jane Miller
- 03-18-21
Dark and Funny
I’m sad it’s over. The narrator’s comedic-timing for this dark-beauty is unforgettable. A great listen. I love Julie Whalen.
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