NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • “A stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships” (People) from the author of Conversations with Friends, “a master of the literary page-turner” (J. Courtney Sullivan).
“[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting.”—The Washington Post
ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY’S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE
TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: People, Slate, The New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson
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, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.
WINNER: The British Book Award, The Costa Book Award, The An Post Irish Novel of the Year, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award
BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country
I spent all of yesterday afternoon ugly crying after reading Sally Rooney's Normal People in one sitting. It was my Discord book club's pick for the month, and I have to admit, I've never been all that interested in reading it. It sounded, for want of a better word, too "normal." I went into it fully expecting to hate it and emerged a few hours later, a blubbering, exhausted mess.
Normal People is familiar and relatable in a way that very few books are. It takes annoying literary crutches that I usually hate (like a lack of communication between characters driving the plot) and contextualised them, making them understandable. I felt a kinship with aspects of both Connell and Marianne's personalities, and it also really subtly brought the psychological effect of abuse onto relationships into the mix in a way that was neither preachy nor exploitative.
One of the things I also really loved about it is that Sally Rooney obviously feels very similar to me about literary fiction, but has managed to subvert that by writing a book that I think all literary fiction should attempt to emulate. Normal People is intelligent, subtle, and well thought out. It fits clearly within a framework of higher education and literary achievement, without pandering to any of the pretensions that come with that. But where it really shines is that every reader will come away from this book with a different message. No character is good or bad, black or white - they're just normal people struggling to get by in a confusing world.
More than anything, Normal People feels like truth. The truth is always intimate and never easy to confront.
