Genre: New Adult Fiction
Length: 288 pages
Audiobook Length: 7 hours and 34 minutes
First Published: 2019
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Publisher’s Description
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.
Quotes from Normal People
“It’s funny the decisions you make because you like someone, he says, and then your whole life is different. I think we’re at that weird age where life can change a lot from small decisions.”
“There’s always been something inside her that men have wanted to dominate, and their desire for domination can look so much like attraction, even love.”
“Life is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.”
“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.”
About Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney is an Irish author. She has written two novels: Conversations with Friends, Beautiful World, Where Are You, and Normal People.