Normal People: A Novel

by Sally Rooney

Normal People follows two Irish teenagers: Marianne, a bookish outsider, and Connell, who is popular and sporty, as they leave their hometown to attend Trinity College, Dublin, where they find their social standings flipped. Marianne, who comes from a wealthy background, thrives in the new environment, while Connell struggles to find a toehold. But even as they drift apart, a combination of magnetic attraction and shared history draws them back together. Normal People makes for compulsive reading, and shares Conversations with Friends’ snappy dialogue. But this is a much darker book, which dwells on how dysfunctional and selfish behaviour can reverberate through others’ lives. It’s most powerful when it dwells upon how we can – with others’ help – begin to piece ourselves back together after trauma or tragedy.