The novel does, however, mention the economic crisis that Ireland experienced in 2008, since Jamie-one of Marianne’s college boyfriends-comes from a family involved in the banking scandals that impacted the economic downturn. Rooney herself has voiced misgivings about her own fame.īecause Normal People focuses so heavily on the intricacies and nuances of Connell and Marianne’s romantic relationship, it doesn’t necessarily dwell on many historical events. She has been hailed as the foremost “millennial novelist,” though some critics note that the hype surrounding Rooney’s writing tends to prevent people from seeing the actual nuance and complexity of her work. Rooney published her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, in 2021. These explorations turned into Normal People, which was published in 2018 and adapted into a television series by Hulu and the BBC in 2020. After the novel’s publication in 2017, Rooney started writing more about two characters from a short story she published in 2016. She was on the debate team during her time at Trinity and won the European University Debating Championships in 2013-an experience she wrote about in an essay called “Even If You Beat Me,” which captured the attention of her future agent, who later sold her debut novel, Conversations with Friends. She eventually attended Trinity College in Dublin and was named a scholar in 2011, thus securing what’s considered Ireland’s most prestigious award for undergraduates.

Sally Rooney was born in 1991 in County Mayo, Ireland, where she grew up with her parents and two siblings.

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