Normal People
Book description
NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “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).
ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE—Entertainment Weekly
TEN BEST…
Why read it?
4 authors picked Normal People as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I’m not even sure this fits in my category, but I loved it so much that I am going to force it to fit. I love a good love story, and this one is one of the best. I love that I both love and hate the two main characters and that their flaws allow me to engage so fully with them that I WANT them to be real people. I wanted to write them letters, saying, “Aw, pet, it’ll get better.” But here, it really doesn’t, and a kind of truth prevails. Love is not eternal, but it sure…
From Kathryn's list on fake autobiographical fiction through the ages.
As a feminist and attorney, I think and talk a lot about the legal boundaries of consent. This “coming of age” story takes all that and puts it in a blender.
Through the story of one young couple’s on-again, off-again journey through high school and college, Rooney brilliantly shows how complicated and entwined the personal and political are when it comes to relationships and consent, power and class divisions, and more.
It’s a brilliant he-thought/she-thought that enmeshes you in that stage of early adulthood independence when one has to learn to navigate sex, money, alcohol, family, and more.
From Julie's list on how reproductive rights are human rights.
This is a great coming-of-age love story, and although the characters are a little old for the YA category their problems are the same as those that many younger people face.
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, but Marianne is a loner. However, there’s a mutual attraction and the two find themselves drawn to each other. They move on from school to a prestigous university, and although they try to stay apart they keep being drawn together. There are…
From Phill's list on young people meeting a challenge.
There’s no logical reason why the two main characters can’t be together, yet they’re in a push-me-pull-you dance until the last page—one of the best-selling dances of recent times. Marianne and Connell meet at high school, but the cracks in their home lives and the pressures of adolescence have led to a mutual sense of internalised shame that threatens to rupture their connection, from school to university and beyond. It’s hard to be a bystander to their intimacy, observing the way low self-worth is affecting their behaviour, but Rooney’s capacity for natural dialogue and capturing the discomfort of people becoming…
From Kate's list on relationships and dating in the modern age.
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