Normal People
Sally Rooney
£14.99
Mr B's review
Mr B’s Christmas Catalogue Review 2018
A coming of age story which puts the lives of two teenage characters under the microscope and effortlessly makes their ‘ordinary’ relationship compelling. Externally, Connell and Marianne seem unlikely soul mates – at school she is a loner and he is the golden boy – but they are both fiercely intelligent and share creative inner lives. As they make their way through university, their crackling dialogue and poignant moments of self-doubt are perfectly observed.
Description
THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2018
WINNER OF THE SPECSAVERS NATIONAL BOOKS AWARD 2018 (International Author)
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019
‘The best novel published this year.’ The Times
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years.
This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person’s life – a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us – blazingly – about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege. Alternating menace with overwhelming tenderness, Sally Rooney’s second novel breathes fiction with new life.
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