A number of publications ranked it one of the best books of the 2010s. A critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated television adaptation of the same name aired from April 2020 on BBC Three and Hulu. You can find reviews on Sally Rooney’s novel here, and purchase the novel on Amazon. Normal People is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Somehow, their lives become connected and, even though they keep getting separated over and over, they always find their way back to each other. Her style of writing feels like watching your memories and heartbreak play out in words. Normal People is the story of Marianne and Connell, 2 schoolmates who pretend to not know each other but develop a relationship in secret. Rooney’s novel depicts mental illness in its actuality, the melancholic tone of the novel allows you to feel deeply for the characters while also giving the reader space to reflect on their own experiences. She shows how these invisible illnesses manifest into a person’s life and how people have to deal with these unbearable hardships while remaining functional for their employers and education. While both characters struggle with different mental illnesses, Rooney depicts the reality for those suffering with depression.

Throughout the story we watch these lovers deal with the trauma of domestic violence, loss of a friend to suicide, and poverty. Both Marianne and Connell struggle with an inability to communicate their needs and love for each other.

Normal People follows protagonists Marianne and Connell who navigate their romantic relationship as they leave high school and enter university. Often the challenge faced by authors writing about delicate themes is avoiding the romanticization of mental illness. Salley Rooney’s Normal People, is a touching novel exploring many themes that are known oh-too-well by adolescents transitioning into adulthood.

Normal people book cover