Normal People Audiobook By Sally Rooney cover art

Normal People

A Novel

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Normal People

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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About this listen

Now an Emmy-nominated a Hulu original series • New York Times best seller

"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 10 best novels of the decade - Entertainment Weekly

Ten best books of the year - People, Slate, the New York Public Library, Harvard Crimson

Best books of the year - The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Esquire, Glamour, Elle, Marie Claire, Vox, The Paris Review, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country

Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation - awkward but electrifying - something life changing begins.

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.

Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.

Praise for Normal People

"[A] novel that demands to be read compulsively, in one sitting." (The Washington Post)

"Arguably the buzziest novel of the season, Sally Rooney’s elegant sophomore effort...is a worthy successor to Conversations with Friends. Here, again, she unflinchingly explores class dynamics and young love with wit and nuance." (The Wall Street Journal)

"[Rooney] has been hailed as the first great millennial novelist for her stories of love and late capitalism.... [She writes] some of the best dialogue I’ve read." (The New Yorker)

©2019 Sally Rooney (P)2019 Random House Audio
Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt Feel-Good
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Editorial review


By Mysia Haight

NORMAL PEOPLE SPEAKS TO EVERY PERSON WHO'S EVER LOVED, LOST, AND GROWN IN THE PROCESS

Normal People follows Marianne and Connell as they come of age, growing in self-awareness and emotional maturity around one another. Throughout their university years, they have an on-again, off-again relationship, complicated by their frequent miscommunication and inability to be honest with each other—or themselves. To aggravate matters, Marianne feels as if she doesn’t deserve to be loved, which makes her vulnerable to being mistreated by men. As we gradually learn, Marianne is no stranger to abuse—her father, who died when she was 13, hit both her and her mother; her older brother, Alan, is a violent bully; and her mother, rather than defend and protect her, is icy and disdainful. Raised by a loving but firm and pragmatic single mom, Connell (despite his shameful behavior in secondary school) is the first man who treats Marianne with tenderness and respect. Still, he has demons of his own, including nagging questions about the identity of his father, and battles depression.

Though Normal People centers on young love, it explores issues—class, gender, intimacy, power dynamics, and family dysfunction among them—relatable to readers of all ages. As the novel progresses, Marianne and Connell come to love one another, deeply and fully. But don't expect a conventional happily-ever-after ending. With her gift for writing about real relationships, with all their joy and pain, conflicts and uncertainty, Sally Rooney leaves us wondering about her characters’ future as a couple but also knowing that, whatever happens, Marianne and Connell will both be fine because they’ve each made the other a better person.

Continue reading Mysia's review >

Critic reviews

"[Narrator] Aoife McMahon, a skillful actor with a gorgeous Irish accent, makes each personality idiosyncratic and believable, and perfectly captures their confusion at being young and emotionally innocent, and trying to be decent but with no idea how to manage it. Rooney's subtle writing and engrossing plot work with McMahon's nimble and witty performance to balance your sympathies on a knife edge between these unforgettable characters." (AudioFile Magazine)

“I’m transfixed by the way Rooney works, and I’m hardly the only one...like any confident couturier, she’s slicing the free flow of words into the perfect shape.... She writes about tricky commonplace things (text messages, sex) with a familiarity no one else has.” (The Paris Review)

"This superb book more than lives up to the high expectations set for it by Rooney's lauded first novel.... Showcasing Rooney's focus and ability in building character relationships that are as subtle and infinite as real-life ones, and her perceptive portrayal of class, Normal People gets at the hard work of becoming a person and the near impossibility of knowing if a first love is a true one." (Booklist)

"I went into a tunnel with this book and didn’t want to come out. Absolutely engrossing and surprisingly heart-breaking with more depth, subtlety, and insight than any one novel deserves. Young love is a subject of much scorn, but Rooney understands the cataclysmic effects our youth has on the people we become. She has restored not only love’s dignity, but also its significance." (Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter)

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Beautiful Writing • Complex Characters • Emotional Depth • Authentic Dialogue • Compelling Relationships
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I listened to this book with great anticipation given the rave reviews by reviewers that I value. The writing is excellent. But the story is exactly what the title says, it's about normal people. Normal people have a lot going on in their lives of course and they learn and grow. Most of us are like the characters in this book - normal people with all the heights and lows that happen in a normal life. But to be honest, I found it boring. There was no climax or great moment - just life happening and the characters growing with it. Well done, but for me boring. I did like the end which was realistic and not cliche but also not worth reading the whole book. Read it since everyone is talking about it, but I'm not recommending it to my book lover friends.

A story about normal lives, but that's it

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Years ago, I asked a patient why she stayed with a boyfriend who made her so unhappy, and she said, matter-of-fact, "James is here to show me where my wounds are." This book is the story of love presented in such a gorgeous way that painfully rings true, it hurts. When I say gorgeous, I mean that this a precise exploration of sorrow and resilience that is known and felt and nearly impossible to write about, but Ms Rooney did it. Normal people are full of contradictions and complexities that pull them North and South at the same time. In this book, the author offers them to us, with love and rigor--I am suddenly thinking of Un Chien Andalou's first scene where the eye is brutally and literally opened. The book deserves all of the praise it has gotten and then some.

Love among the wounds--startling and superb

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Frustrating the way the characters kept making the wrong choices with their lives and relationship

Didn’t really enjoy it

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I found the internal emotions of the characters very beautifully and vividly described. Aoife is a wonderful narrator. The plot is a rather classic on again/off again romance but the depth of the characters’ interiority makes it worthwhile.

A romance with depression

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Heart-wrenchingly beautiful... will have you hooked and feeling everything the characters are feeling. I highly recommend this to any normal human

Beautiful

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Investing unpredictable story. well developed characters. love that it's Irish. Scandinavia was an interesting interlude. perfect narration

Nice intergenerational experience

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I would have loved this book had I read it as a young adult. No expectations of creativity- just a lonely desire to connect to others my age.

As a 55 yr old, I felt like I was watching a rerun of Pretty in Pink movie from the 1980’s and with retrospect realize how immature and adolescent it was.

The characters are well developed but the plot is a bit cookie cutter. I held out til the end hoping for a remarkable redemption in the story but the end is worse than the entire story line combined.

The narrator is superb.

Pretty in Pink with a sadist twist

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I have read, listened to and now watched the Hulu series. I have enjoyed them all. This is a wonderful story and is full of feelings. It should be required high school reading as it has so much to offer on some difficult subjects during a period growth and learning in a young persons life. The importance of words and listening to others can not be underestimated. The ending always feels a little rushed to me but I get it. It always leaves me wanting more for Marianne and Connell and me, the reader.

A Must Read

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Riveting and binge worthy! The writing was exquisite and I found myself on edge feeling for the two main characters. Well done! Impeccable narration. The best.

OUTSTANDING!

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The lead character female is way too self loathing to enjoy this novel. If she weren’t so pathetic the whole way through I might have enjoyed it. The story was interesting enough.

Annoying

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