Normal People by Sally Rooney

Read March 2019.

This book has won loads of awards, including Costa Book of the Year 2018, Waterstones' Book of the Year 2018, and is on the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in western Ireland, and although they are both the brightest students in their year, their lives are very different. Connell lives on the local estate and is popular and well liked, but does not really feel at home in his own skin. Marianne lives in "the white mansion", is a loner, is disliked by most of her peers, and no one knows how horrendous her home life really is. Connell's mum cleans for Marianne's family and one day Connell and Marianne strike up a conversation, which begins an unusual and long lasting friendship/love affair.
As the years pass they follow Connell and Marianne from school to Trinity college, where Connell is struggling to fit in and Marianne enjoys new found popularity. They find themselves being drawn back to each other time and time again, but are they good for each other?

This is a difficult book to define. The book itself is about what it is like to strive to be "normal" and a "good person", when you feel broken inside, but the relationship between Connell and Marianne is so frustrating that you want to bang their heads together most of the time. Every time you think they have made a breakthrough, there is another misunderstanding that breaks them up. If only they would learn to talk to each other properly - or at least listen! It is exasperating!

Having said that it is the kind of book that you find you have to keep reading, even if you are not sure you are enjoying it. There is something about it that gets to you, even if it is mostly depressing.

I have seen it billed as a "book club book", which is meant to be derogatory, but I can understand why, because there is plenty to talk about here. It is definitely thought provoking.

This is another book down on my mission to read the Women's Prize for Fiction long list this year! 😁