Keen to get in on the Sally Rooney excitement but don't know where to start? We've got you!
Sally Rooney is one of our generation’s most beloved authors. Her stories are frank and raw with deeply flawed (and occasionally unlikeable) characters. And with her latest book, Intermezzo, having released this September, more people than ever want to experience the melancholy and realistic drama of Rooney’s written world.
It can be bloody intimidating knowing where to start when an author is this popular, so here are my recommendations of which Sally Rooney to pick up based some other amazing (and rightfully popular!) stories by other talented authors.
If you loved One Day by David Nicholls and Clare Daverly’s latest novel Talking at Night, you’ll love Normal People.
Like Em and Dex, and Will and Rosie – Connell and Marianne are two young people navigating the turbulence of life, finding peace in each other, but ultimately getting in their own way when it comes to life and love. Rooney doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of growing up, first loves and great losses, instead using them to create complex and interesting characters who reflect real life in an authentic, and almost poetic, way. I highly recommend checking out the television adaptation of Normal People too, as it does a great job of translating book-to-screen (plus Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones 😍😍).
If you’ve been anywhere near BookTok since its publication in 2022, you will have heard of the heart-wrenchingly raw and spectacular Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – and if, like me, you devoured its lyrical and gutsy plot and unfiltered characters, you are bound to enjoy Conversations with Friends.
In true Rooney fashion, these are impeccably flawed individuals in messy romantic situations. Francis and Bobbi are roommates at college, best friends and exes, who get entangled in the literary landscape of Dublin, and between the sheets of a married couple.
Another gorgeously melancholic and complicated gem, much like Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors, is Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You.
If you love reading about wondrously messy and complex relationships – you will enjoy following Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon as they weather the mundane parts of life and love, trying to recapture the sparks of their youth. Like Cleo and Frank’s story, the entanglement of codependent friendship and romance knots tight, creating frays and pulls along the way.
It may seem like an obvious one, but lovers of The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis (yes, there’s a book!) will enjoy the newest addition to Rooney’s catalogue Intermezzo, but I promise the chess is not the only thing these two books have in common!
Both novels are portraits of grief and intimacy in the throes of addiction – to chess, to familiarity, and to substances. Intermezzo follows two brothers, Ivan and Peter, struggling in the wake of their father’s death to connect to each other and to the women in their lives. It is perfectly framed by the imagery of chess, as Beth’s story is, with the rationale of the game clashing with the senselessness and unpredictability of life.
You can find all these amazing titles at your favourite book stores right now (well, while stocks last of course!).
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