Sally Rooney

Ernest Riera i Arbussà

Gent normal

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the celebrated author of Conversations with Friends comes "a stunning novel about the transformative power of relationships" (People), hailed as "a masterpiece, pure and simple" (Minneapolis Star Tribune). "Among the vast cohort of new millennial novelists, none are connecting with readers as intimately, or generating as much excitement, as Sally Rooney."--Entertainment Weekly WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD * WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD * LONGLISTED FOR: THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE * THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE * THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION * THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE * THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne's house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers--one they are determined to conceal. 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. Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship. Praise for Normal People "[Rooney] has been hailed as the first great millennial novelist for her stories of love and late capitalism . . . [she writes] some of the best dialogue I've read."--The New Yorker "Arguably the buzziest novel of the season, Sally Rooney's elegant sophomore effort . . . is a worthy successor to Conversations With Friends. Here, again, she unflinchingly explores class dynamics and young love with wit and nuance."--The Wall Street Journal, "12 Best Books of Spring" "Keenly observed, deeply perceptive, and psychologically acute, Normal People brims with disarming insights into how men and women wrestle with sex, class, popularity, and young love."--Esquire, "Best Books to Read This Spring"

A Novel

Normal People

Shari Ilg

What they have now they can never have back again. But for her the pain of loneliness will be nothing to the pain that she used to feel, of being unworthy. He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once. They’ve done a lot of good for each other. Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another.

Dublin is extraordinarily beautiful to her in wet weather, the way grey stone darkens to black, and rain moves over the grass and whispers on slick roof tiles. Raincoats glistening in the undersea colour of street lamps. Rain silver as loose change in the glare of traffic.

The medication is doing its chemical work inside his brain now anyway, no matter what he does or says. He gets up and showers every morning, he turns up for work in the library, he doesn’t really fantasise about jumping off a bridge. He takes the medication, life goes on.

Marianne has nothing to do but sit in the garden watching insects wriggle through soil.

If people appeared to behave pointlessly in grief, it was only because human life was pointless, and this was the truth that grief revealed.

I’m not a religious person but I do sometimes think God made you for me.

Yes, but I’m still alive at work, says Joanna. It’s still me, I’m still having experiences. You’re not working, okay, but the time is passing for you too. You’ll never get it back either. But I can decide what I do with it.

Lately Marianne walks around Carricklea and thinks how beautiful it is in sunny weather, white clouds like chalk dust over the library, long avenues lined with trees. The arc of a tennis ball through blue air. Cars slowing at traffic lights with their windows rolled down, music bleating from the speakers. Marianne wonders what it would be like to belong here, to walk down the street greeting people and smiling. To feel that life was happening here, in this place, and not somewhere else far away.

A crow on the forecourt picks at a discarded crisp packet. A family comes out of the shop holding ice creams. The smell of petrol infiltrates the car interior, heavy like a headache. He starts the engine.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In 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. Normal People is a 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 they can't.

Ezgi Hatipoğlu

It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.

figments of one's sanity

At times he has the sensation that he and Marianne are like figure-skaters, improvising their discussions so adeptly and in such perfect synchronisation that it surprises them both. She tosses herself gracefully into the air, and each time, without knowing how he's going to do it, he catches her.

She would have lain on the ground and let him walk over body if he wanted, he knew that.

Anna Cassmer Ling-Vannérus

If people appeared to behave pointlessly in grief, it was only because human life was pointless, and this was the truth that grief revealed. 

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER; LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE: A wondrously wise, genuinely unputdownable 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.

lowkey surprised this line came so early 

Raigan Correll

I would never pretend not to know you Connell

The deeper I get into adulthood the more I can agree 

Jojo

That’s money, the substance that makes the world real. There’s something so corrupt and sexy about it.

Laura Dobie

Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently. You learn nothing very profound about yourself simply by being bullied; but by bullying someone else you learn something you can never forget.

Connell's initial assessment of the reading was not disproven. It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about. Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing. Presumably this was how the industry made money. Literature, in the way it appeared at these public readings, had no potential as a form of resistance to anything. 

Connell couldn’t think of any reason why these literary events took place, what they contributed to anything, what they meant. They were attended only by people who wanted to be the kind of people who attended them.

Is the world such an evil place, that love should be indistinguishable from the basest and most abusive forms of violence? Outside her breath rises in a fine mist and the snow keeps falling, like a ceaseless repetition of the same infinitesimally small mistake.

He doesn't remember how he got back to her house, whether he walked or took a taxi, he still doesn't know. The place had that strange unfurnished cleanliness that lonely houses sometimes have. She seemed like a person with no hobbies: no bookcases, no musical instruments. What do you do with yourself at the weekends, he remembers slurring. I go out and have fun, she said. This struck him even at the time as deeply depressing. She poured them both glasses of wine. Connell sat on the leather sofa and drank the wine for something to do with his hands.

He did gradually start to wonder why all their classroom discussions were so abstract and lacking in textual detail, and eventually he realised that most people were not actually doing the reading. They were coming into college every day to have heated debates about books they had not read. He understands now that his classmates are not like him. It's easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don't worry about appearing ignorant or conceited. They are not stupid people, but they' re not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he'll probably really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.

Connell wished he knew how other people conducted their private lives, so that he could copy from example.

Normal Insanlar

Beliz Kaya

Şu dünya, sevgi denen şeyi kimsenin şiddetin en adi ve aşağılık biçimlerinden ayırt edemediği kadar kötü bir yer olabilir mi?   

Seni seviyorum. Öylesine söylemiyorum, gerçekten, Gözleri doluyor Marianne'in, yumuyor gözlerini. Daha sonra hatırladığında dahi dayanamadığı kadar etkileyecek bu an onu, şu an yaşıyorken bile farkında bunun. Kimsenin sevgisine değer olduğunu düşünmemişti Marianne. Ama şimdi yeni bir hayatı var, ilk ânı da bu. Marianne üzerinden yıllar geçtikten sonra bile aynı şeyi düşünecek. Evet, o anda işte, hayatıman başladığı an o andı.  

i wanted to like it so bad, but it comes of as erratic and i did not like the ending

kate 

It was both very vexing and interesting at the same time

maderinn⟢

I'm having a difficult time properly rating this book because I had a hard time putting it down while reading, but ultimately felt disappointed with it as a whole. 

The best aspect of the book to me is the dialogue between characters. It's smart, honest, and feels moderately realistic. The dialogue is what hooked me and kept me turning pages well past what I intended each reading session.

Some may find themselves frustrated by both Connell and Marianne's inability to grow as individuals. We are introduced to them when they are in high school and finish with them as young adults figuring out what the future holds for them post-university. From beginning to end, they still have the same communication problems, the same character flaws, and the same attachment to each other. Every time you think, "maybe they've learned now, they'll be good this time", they revert right back to their old ways and mess things up for each other all over again. Personally, I found this to be a realistic and relatable representation of young adulthood and didn't mind the choice, but it is insanely frustrating to read at times.

What I really didn't like was how little depth there is to the characters. We are outright told things about Connell and Marianne that absolutely contribute to who they are as characters, but we never really get to explore any of those subjects because the focus always remains on Connell and Marianne's relationship with each other. Every major character revelation is quickly brushed aside and hardly acknowledged again. These characters have trauma, but the trauma is never addressed, which I do think can serve as an explanation for the previously mentioned lack of growth. That might also just be another realistic feature of the book. 

Ultimately, "Normal People" is an incredibly entertaining read that has some beautiful moments in it. That alone makes it worth enjoying to me.

Bryce Widdel

I'm having a difficult time properly rating this book because I had a hard time putting it down while reading, but ultimately felt disappointed with it as a whole. 

The best aspect of the book to me is the dialogue between characters. It's smart, honest, and feels moderately realistic. The dialogue is what hooked me and kept me turning pages well past what I intended each reading session.

Some may find themselves frustrated by both Connell and Marianne's inability to grow as individuals. We are introduced to them when they are in high school and finish with them as young adults figuring out what the future holds for them post-university. From beginning to end, they still have the same communication problems, the same character flaws, and the same attachment to each other. Every time you think, "maybe they've learned now, they'll be good this time", they revert right back to their old ways and mess things up for each other all over again. Personally, I found this to be a realistic and relatable representation of young adulthood and didn't mind the choice, but it is insanely frustrating to read at times.

What I really didn't like was how little depth there is to the characters. We are outright told things about Connell and Marianne that absolutely contribute to who they are as characters, but we never really get to explore any of those subjects because the focus always remains on Connell and Marianne's relationship with each other. Every major character revelation is quickly brushed aside and hardly acknowledged again. These characters have trauma, but the trauma is never addressed, which I do think can serve as an explanation for the previously mentioned lack of growth. That might also just be another realistic feature of the book. 

Ultimately, "Normal People" is an incredibly entertaining read that has some beautiful moments in it. That alone makes it worth enjoying to me.

finished in one sitting, safe to say it whisks you away.

Alanna Rieser

Za izbingeat i plakat, 13 reasons why vibe

Eva Cace

An emotional journey for sure. I feel like I understand a younger version of myself better and can see my current self better after reading it. The words unspoken between two people so clearly in love because the fear of losing that person is so crippling is all too relatable. I feel for both Marianne and Connell on such a deep level I just wish they weren’t cowards and embraced love. It’s so scary even terrifying but there’s also something so safe in having your person. 

Joe Ricupero

so this is just an irish version of The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton? (because you think it’s a love story, which it is, but still covers things like class and gender) i think for a 2018 book it eats but reading this in 2025 makes it a bit paler than i thought it would be. i also really didn’t want to read this because a main trope is miscommunication, but it’s not as bad as i thought it would be. i do love the writing style though, always have a soft spot for the gentle and mundane against some terrible shi happening

Ianna Chia

sadly i eat this up like i couldn’t put the book down i think this is one of the very few books that have gone viral on booktok and i actually get the hype. such an easy read

nina 

Teenagers Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne's house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal. 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 on the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their time at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities. 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 by sally rooney is a novel that, while having a good plot, can be a bit challenging to read because of the author’s writing style—especially the dialogues, which don’t use quotation marks when the characters are talking to each other. the story mainly revolves around marianne and connell’s on-and-off relationship, with a heavy focus on their sex life, which at times overshadows other aspects of their characters. it would have been more compelling if the narrative dug deeper into marianne’s troubled family and the abuse she experiences, as well as connell’s way of thinking and the reasons behind his struggles. i do love how the book ends openly, leaving readers to choose their own version of how their story continues, but it also really frustrates me that this was the ending after everything they went through. despite these mixed feelings, the book still offers an honest portrayal of intimacy, miscommunication, and the messiness of young love.

in my opinion the ultimate sally rooney book. i have not read the new one and based on my review of the first one you might think normal people would not be up my alley. but it precisely is. it evokes raw emotion in a way most books don't. it is also the only time a sally rooney book does not suffer from prolonged political commentaries disguised as mere conversations. the way the characters connect and interact is so captivating

Vincent Osvald

Normale Menschen

Ich habe gedacht, dass ich dieses Buch nicht mögen würde, doch es hat mich positiv überrascht und emotional so sehr mitgenommen, wie ich es niemals erwartet hätte.

Ich habe dieses Buch während meiner Rom Reise gelesen und ich denke, dass das ebenfalls einen Einfluss darauf hatte, wie ich dem Buch gegenüber empfinde.

Diese Geschichte ist keine Love Story und zum allerersten Mal geht es in einem Buch meiner Meinung nach nicht zentral um die romantische Beziehung zwischen den beiden Protagonisten, sondern um eine tiefe Freundschaft, eine Verbundenheit und Vertrautheit, wie ich sie so noch nie gelesen habe. Dieses Buch hat in mir so starke Gefühle ausgelöst, mich zum Weinen gebracht, und jedes Mal, wenn ich es in den Händen halte, werde ich von den Emotionen überschwemmt, die ich beim Lesen empfunden habe. Sally Rooney konnte all das in einem Leser/Leserin auslösen und dabei einen Schreibstil verwenden, der sehr nüchtern und einfach ist. How?!

Das Buch behandelt wichtige Themen wie den Kampf gegen Minderwertigkeitsgefühle, Depression, gesellschaftlichen Rang sowie Freundschaft, Liebe und Zugehörigkeit.

Ich werde Connell und Marianne wahrscheinlich nicht so schnell vergessen können.

Zainab 

Ich habe gedacht, dass ich dieses Buch nicht mögen würde, doch es hat mich positiv überrascht und emotional so sehr mitgenommen, wie ich es niemals erwartet hätte.

Ich habe dieses Buch während meiner Rom Reise gelesen und ich denke, dass das ebenfalls einen Einfluss darauf hatte, wie ich dem Buch gegenüber empfinde.

Diese Geschichte ist keine Love Story und zum allerersten Mal geht es in einem Buch meiner Meinung nach nicht zentral um die romantische Beziehung zwischen den beiden Protagonisten, sondern um eine tiefe Freundschaft, eine Verbundenheit und Vertrautheit, wie ich sie so noch nie gelesen habe. Dieses Buch hat in mir so starke Gefühle ausgelöst, mich zum Weinen gebracht, und jedes Mal, wenn ich es in den Händen halte, werde ich von den Emotionen überschwemmt, die ich beim Lesen empfunden habe. Sally Rooney konnte all das in einem Leser/Leserin auslösen und dabei einen Schreibstil verwenden, der sehr nüchtern und einfach ist. How?!

Das Buch behandelt wichtige Themen wie den Kampf gegen Minderwertigkeitsgefühle, Depression, gesellschaftlichen Rang sowie Freundschaft, Liebe und Zugehörigkeit.

Ich werde Connell und Marianne wahrscheinlich nicht so schnell vergessen können.

sometimes you love people so intensely, it changes you ! 

anyway the missed communication huRt me physically at times here,, simply put:: if situationship intense,, how not real relationship??? 

Nat Wong

sometimes you love people so intensely, it changes you ! 

anyway the missed communication huRt me physically at times here,, simply put:: if situationship intense,, how not real relationship??? 

From what I’ve read about this story, it is controversial. I think there’s no way to understand it if you haven’t lived an experienced close to the relationship of marryanne and Connell.

This book is honest and raw. I feel like it does well describing the experience of your twenties. Whether or not you are in this kind of romantic situation or not.

As for the read, it was very slow, but interesting and kept me entertained. I found myself frustrated many times trying to force something to happen between the two, as if it were my story to tell. But it isn’t, and that’s the entire point. When I read the last chapter, this book became clear to me.

I don’t think I would recommend this to someone, but I enjoyed it and found it relatable at times.

Hadley 

From what I’ve read about this story, it is controversial. I think there’s no way to understand it if you haven’t lived an experienced close to the relationship of marryanne and Connell.

This book is honest and raw. I feel like it does well describing the experience of your twenties. Whether or not you are in this kind of romantic situation or not.

As for the read, it was very slow, but interesting and kept me entertained. I found myself frustrated many times trying to force something to happen between the two, as if it were my story to tell. But it isn’t, and that’s the entire point. When I read the last chapter, this book became clear to me.

I don’t think I would recommend this to someone, but I enjoyed it and found it relatable at times.

finja

as much as I understand how the author is trying to capture how the relationship dynamic between the characters is undeniably realistic, it is just too anticlimatic and lack of emotions. 

zahra

the most heart-breaking but comforting book i have ever known. i could read it over and over again and it would kill me every time. 

evie coxon

Anticlimactic and kind of boring. Complex characters but they were both honestly infuriating and the entire relationship was kind of gross to observe

I avoided this book because it was so hyped, but I'm glad I finally read it. It's well worth the hype. I grew to really like the main characters. We follow their overlapping lives over the years, and we get to dig deeper and see them grow. There's a beautiful authenticity that's revealed and it's satisfying to see them find acceptance and embrace themselves.

Saffia

I really can’t bring myself to give a gaf about them im sorry

Cate

it was a story that i read very easily and it was very emotional and unique. it was very interesting to read it while watching the show. marianne and connell were very relatable and i really found myself in them. there are many people, and i include myself, who do not know how to "communicate" their feelings, maybe they find it difficult or even cannot do it. this is a good example of how people keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and how they simply won't grow up.

i know that many people find the lack of quotation marks tiresome  because it's hard to tell when it's dialogue and everything seems messy but so is life and you can't always understand it, so i think this makes it much more fascinating. the dialogue was really entertaining and i would like to read more of the author's writings.

victor

it was a story that i read very easily and it was very emotional and unique. it was very interesting to read it while watching the show. marianne and connell were very relatable and i really found myself in them. there are many people, and i include myself, who do not know how to "communicate" their feelings, maybe they find it difficult or even cannot do it. this is a good example of how people keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and how they simply won't grow up.

i know that many people find the lack of quotation marks tiresome  because it's hard to tell when it's dialogue and everything seems messy but so is life and you can't always understand it, so i think this makes it much more fascinating. the dialogue was really entertaining and i would like to read more of the author's writings.

loved this book to the moon and back, gave me a new perspective on my relationships with other people

nell reeves 

I love the way she has developed each character. totally in love with the story plot & I didn’t really expect it to end that way. Overall, a very good book 

Kaarthik sekar 

the lack of quotation marks actually wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be!! And i actually enjoyed the writing in this book my issue is i didn’t feel connected with the characters. I felt like the fly on the wall watching this go down and just going “damn thats crazy” which was kinda the exact opposite of what i thought was going to be my opinion based on how i hear people talk about this book. It’s also very fast paced and slow at the same time somehow?? I think thats just a genre element of literary fiction though. I liked how there wasn’t a bunch of filler because the lack of quotation marks makes you WORK. if you are a chronic skimmer of pages this book will not work. but also the ending was kinda abrupt and it was kinda open ended which make me feel like i didnt gain anything from this book

came back & changed the rating 2 months later bc i cannot stop thinking about this book.  this is actually a masterpiece it just needed to grow on me, i actually do think that this book showcases how small miscommunications and words left unsaid can really affect a relationship and ruin it. And i think seeing the two main characters each have their low points and have such different lives were done so well.

melanie

the lack of quotation marks actually wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be!! And i actually enjoyed the writing in this book my issue is i didn’t feel connected with the characters. I felt like the fly on the wall watching this go down and just going “damn thats crazy” which was kinda the exact opposite of what i thought was going to be my opinion based on how i hear people talk about this book. It’s also very fast paced and slow at the same time somehow?? I think thats just a genre element of literary fiction though. I liked how there wasn’t a bunch of filler because the lack of quotation marks makes you WORK. if you are a chronic skimmer of pages this book will not work. but also the ending was kinda abrupt and it was kinda open ended which make me feel like i didnt gain anything from this book

came back & changed the rating 2 months later bc i cannot stop thinking about this book.  this is actually a masterpiece it just needed to grow on me, i actually do think that this book showcases how small miscommunications and words left unsaid can really affect a relationship and ruin it. And i think seeing the two main characters each have their low points and have such different lives were done so well.

Gent normal

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