Normal People: One million copies sold

· Faber & Faber
4.3
434 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
Eligible
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About this ebook

'The literary phenomenon of the decade.' Guardian
'The book that defined a generation.' Stylist
** Read the modern classic behind the BAFTA-winning series. **
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.
'Tender and devastating.' Guardian
'A book to cancel plans for.' Grazia
'A classic coming-of-age love story.' Vogue
Sally Rooney's book 'Normal People' was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2018-12-24

Ratings and reviews

4.3
434 reviews
Gemma Louise Foster
May 5, 2020
It's written in an overly descriptive way which I'm not used to and some of the similes used didn't really work or fit, in my opinion. However, I enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down, despite it sometimes seeming to take ages getting anywhere. I think that is because, by the end, you really feel like you know the protagonists. I felt sad for them and almost protective of them both. I was saddened by the ending.
2 people found this review helpful
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Kath Crolla
February 23, 2019
The book opens well, with the story of Connor and Marianne while they're at school. Then, Connor's inarticulacy us plausible. It becomes a little annoying as the Will They Won't they develops. It takes a long time for the reasons for Marianne' s inadequacies to emerge. But it's and easy read, simple unadorned language, which I like.
71 people found this review helpful
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Donna Green
January 25, 2020
A strong start of the two main characters and their relationship but by half way through its gets a bit boring. Their relationship, their issues feel lame, uninteresting and affected. You don't really care about them. The ending is very poor.
9 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Sally Rooney is the author of the novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People . Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the London Review of Books and elsewhere . Conversations with Friends was shortlisted for both the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. Rooney was also shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for 'Mr Salary' and was the winner of the Sunday Times /PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. Normal People was the Waterstones Book of the Year 2019 and won the Costa Novel of the Year in 2018. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018, as well as the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Rathbones Folio Prize in 2019. Sally Rooney co-wrote the television adaptation of Normal People which was broadcast on the BBC in 2020, and for which she was nominated for an Emmy award.

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