Normal People, Sally Rooney
Normal People, Sally Rooney
35 Rating(s)
List: $17.50 | Sale: $11.55
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Normal People

Bestseller

Author: Sally Rooney

Narrator: Aoife McMahon

Unabridged: 7 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2019


Synopsis

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

About Sally Rooney

Irish born, new author, Sally Rooney, had her debut novel published in 2017, entitled Conversations with Friends. The debut novel was followed by Normal People, in 2018, and adapted into a TV series in 2020.

Rooney grew up in Castleberry, County Mayo, where her father was an employee of Telecom Eireann, and her mother was administrator of an art center. Rooney was elected a scholar at Trinity College Dublin, in 2011. She studied politics there, and completed a degree in American literature instead. She graduated with an M.A. in 2013. She is a self-described Marxist. Debating was her strong suit, as she became the top debater at the European University Debating Champions. She currently lives in Dublin.


Reviews

Disclaimer: I understand that Normal People is very popular and much beloved. While I recognise that Rooney has talent, I found Normal People to be a mediocre read. If you dislike reading reviews expressing opinions different from your own, well, I suggest you skip this review. There are plenty of g......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on May 06, 2020

Let it be known that I found this book both exhilarating and almost unbearably frustrating. About halfway through the book I literally lied down on my couch and screamed to my empty apartment, “Connell, you are such an incompetent communicator, I swear to God herself if you don’t help yourself I’m g......more

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 21, 2019

No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not. This is going to be a polarizing book. I mean, I think I liked it. And I say "liked it" in t......more

Goodreads review by Yun on August 19, 2024

Normal People starts out beautifully. Marianne is a loner in high school with no friends, while Connell is the popular football player. His mom works as a cleaner at Marianne's house, so they run into each other when he stops by to pick up his mom. Over time, they start to thaw around each other, gr......more

Goodreads review by jessica on May 02, 2020

wow. one of the most frustrating, but humanising, books i have read in a long time. for sure. i feel so exhausted after reading this, but i think that may have been the authors intent. its shows that normal people living normal lives can be quite tiresome. for example: - the writing lacks quotation m......more


Quotes

“[Rooney] has invented a sensibility entirely of her own: sunny and sharp, free of artifice but overflowing with wisdom and intensity. . . . The novel touches on class, politics, and power dynamics and brims with the sparky, witty conversation that Rooney’s fans will recognize.”Vogue 

“A future classic.”The Guardian

Rooney is a tough girl; her papercut-sharp sensibility is much more akin to writers like Rachel Kushner, Mary Gaitskill, and the pre–Manhattan Beach Jennifer Egan. . . . Normal People is a nuanced and flinty love story about two young people who ‘get’ each other, despite class differences and the interference of their own vigorous personal demons. But honestly, Sally Rooney could write a novel about bath mats and I’d still read it. She’s that good and that singular a writer.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

“[Rooney] has written two fresh and accessible novels. . . . There is so much to say about Rooney’s fiction—in my experience, when people who’ve read her meet they tend to peel off into corners to talk.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“[Rooney’s] two carefully observed and gentle comedies of manners . . . are tender portraits of Irish college students. . . . Remarkably precise—she captures meticulously the way a generation raised on social data thinks and talks.”—New York Review of Books

Normal People tackles millennial concerns with nineteenth-century wit . . . the millennial generation would no doubt be happy to accept her as its spokesperson were she so inclined.”Elle

“I’m transfixed by the way Rooney works, and I’m hardly the only one . . . like any confident couturier, she’s slicing the free flow of words into the perfect shape. . . . She writes about tricky commonplace things (text messages, sex) with a familiarity no one else has.”The Paris Review

“Funny and intellectually agile . . . [combines] deft social observation—especially of shifts of power between individuals and groups—with acute feeling . . . [Rooney is] a master of the kind of millennial deadpan that appears to skewer a whole life and personality in a sentence or two.”Harper’s Magazine

“Beautifully observed . . . crackles with vivid insight into what it means to be young and in love today.”Esquire

“I went into a tunnel with this book and didn’t want to come out. Absolutely engrossing and surprisingly heart-breaking with more depth, subtlety, and insight than any one novel deserves. Young love is a subject of much scorn, but Rooney understands the cataclysmic effects our youth has on the people we become. She has restored not only love’s dignity, but also its significance.”—Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

“Masterfully done. The quality of Rooney’s writing, particularly in the psychologically wrought sex scenes, cannot be understated as she brilliantly provides a window into her protagonists’ true selves.”BookPage (starred review)


Awards

  • Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award
  • Rathbones Folio Prize