Normal People: Sally Rooney's follow-up to Conversations with Friends

Prepare to fall for this exquisite love story

When she was 22 Sally Rooney was the top competitive debater in Europe. But then she gave it up, partly because she didn’t want to perform for points any more. Debating’s loss was literature’s gain. Now, at 27, Rooney is a Booker Prize longlisted author. There was a seven-way auction to publish her debut novel, Conversations with Friends, which is this year’s beach must-read.

There was no rest for Rooney. She campaigned for Repeal the Eighth, excelled at journalism — including interviewing actress Saoirse Ronan for Vogue and editing literary mag The Stinging Fly — and she’s written another novel. Normal People is out on August 29 and its green cover is set to be seen in every Tube carriage. Here’s what you need to know.

The debut

Conversations with Friends is the story of Frances and Bobbi, students and former lovers at Trinity College Dublin Their lives become caught up with an older, richer, married couple. With lightness of touch, Rooney describes the emotional impact of sex in ambiguous relationships where the power balance isn’t clear. She revealed a skill for recounting conversations (“They’re the most fun to write,” she says) and building tension through intimate descriptions of her characters’ inner struggles and failure to communicate. No pressure for the second novel then.

The follow-up

Normal People is like a zoomed-in Conversations with Friends. It’s about just one relationship but one complex enough to yield more than enough material. Publisher Faber calls it “an exquisite love story”. Perspective alternates between Connell and Marianne. They go to school together, where Connell is popular and Marianne is seen as weird and posh. They form a powerful bond, though, which leads to them both going to Trinity, where the dynamic shifts.

There are geographical and thematic similarities with her first novel but that’s forgiveable because Rooney still has plenty to say about what was raised in her debut. Observant readers will notice that there is a Marianne in Conversations and a Connell in one of Rooney’s short stories, who, like this one, is interested in football and goes out with a woman called Helen. And, as in Conversations, the characters mainline coffee, prizing good cafetieres and Rooney delights in describing their clothes — blouses, linen and berets.

Stephen Page, CEO of Faber, says: “From her early short stories through to her first two novels, Sally’s work has struck her readers at Faber with how in tune she is to the way the world works around us – and how she's expressed this in literature that is a joy to read. Her writing is playful and fearless, funny and stylish, wise but never weighty. It has been thrilling to observe readers' response to her work and how her voice is resonating across generations of readers. We believe she's creating work that will last - writing in a style that is unobtrusive and yet powerful, graceful and honest. This is a writer who draws upon great powers of acuity to convey the emotional conflicts that govern our lives, and treats our shared human experience with truth and beauty."

The author

Lynn Enright, head of news and content at The-pool.com, who has interviewed Rooney, says the author has “fallen victim to that horrible suspicion that afflicts young female writers: is the work autobiographical?” A broadcaster went so far as to ask her on air when she was promoting Conversations: “Did you have an affair with a married man?”

The personal elements are more subtle than that. Enright says: “Like her characters, she’s a deep thinker who cares deeply about politics, although she’s clear that she doesn’t want to write ‘issues novels’.” She’s sporadically active on Twitter, commenting wryly on everything from Trump to pop-up cake shops.

Rooney grew up in the west of Ireland, and like Connell and Marianne won a scholarship to Trinity. Her break came with a story called Mr Salary, shortlisted for the Sunday Times short story award. She was then approached by Ali Smith’s agent. Above all, Rooney says: “In everything I do, my principal inspiration is the Belle & Sebastian album If You’re Feeling Sinister.”

She is modest, tweeting: “novelists are given too much prominence”. Interviewing author Sheila Heti at the LRB Bookshop recently she almost disappeared, so absorbed was she in Heti’s theories about attitudes to women who don’t want children. Sex is a theme for Rooney, who agrees with novelist Eimear McBride that people want to read about it.

Irish pride

When Rooney met Ronan it was “a great moment for Irish women”, says Enright. “After Repeal there’s a realisation that we can change things. With the Vogue story we saw two of our brilliant women on an international stage.” Rooney says Repeal has made her hope that “change is possible, new ways of living may be just within reach”.

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