Cover of Normal People

Normal People

by Sally Rooney

238 pages2019Knopf CanadaISBN 9780735276482

About this book

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE: A wondrously wise, genuinely unputdownable new novel from Sally Rooney, winner of the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award (at 26, tied with Zadie Smith for the youngest-ever recipient)--the quintessential coming-of-age love story for our time. Connell Waldron is one of the most popular boys in his small-town high school--he is a star of the football team, an excellent student, and never wanting for attention from girls. The one thing he doesn't have is money. Marianne Sheridan, a classmate of Connell's, has the opposite problem. Marianne is plain-looking, odd, and stubborn, and while her family is well-off, she has no friends to speak of. There is, however, a deep and undeniable connection between the two teenagers, one that develops into a secret relationship. Everything changes when both Connell and Marianne are accepted to Trinity College. Suddenly Marianne is well-liked and elegant, holding court with her intellectual friends while Connell hangs at the sidelines, not quite as fluent in language of the elite. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle each other, falling in and out of romance but never straying far from where they started. And as Marianne experiments with an increasingly dangerous string of boyfriends, Connell must decide how far he is willing to go to save his oldest friend. Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a novel that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the inescapable challenges of family and friendships. Normal People is a book that you will read in one sitting, and then immediately share with your friends.

Publication Details

Publisher
Knopf Canada
Published
2019
Pages
238
ISBN
9780735276482
Language
en

About Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney is an Irish author and screenwriter. Rooney was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, where she also grew up and lives today, after studying in Dublin and a stint in New York City. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where she was elected a scholar in 2011. She started (but did not complete) a master's degree in politics there, completing a degree in American literature instead, and graduated with an MA in 2013. While attending TCD, Rooney was a university debater and eventually became the top debater at the European Universities Debating Championships in 2013, later writing of the experience. Before becoming a writer, she worked for a restaurant in an administrative role. She has published four novels: *Conversations with Friends* (2017), *Normal People* (2018), *Beautiful World, Where Are You* (2021), and *Intermezzo* (2024). Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Rooney)

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