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26th October 2023
05:17pm BST
If you fell head over heels in love with Sally Rooney's debut 'Normal People' then you're not alone. Millions of people were glued to the Irish writer's beloved novel and couldn't get enough of Connell and Marianne's story. Their complicated love story and indescribable connection were brought to life on screen when 'Normal People' was adapted for TV, inspiring even more people to pick up the novel.
If you've now got a 'Normal People' shaped hole in your heart then I've got a list of books that you'll love equally as much, if not more.
This charming novel by David Nicholls will forever be one of my favourites, but have tissues at the ready because it's an emotional one.
15th July 1988: Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?
And every year that follows?
Emma and Dexter's complex relationship reminds me so much of Connell and Marianne's, which makes this a perfect book to read once you've finished 'Normal People'.
This is one of the most talked about books of the year, and I'm not one bit surprised. Caroline O'Donoghue has created the most gripping tale that follows Cork student Rachel as she grapples with life in college during the recession. It has similar themes to 'Normal People' but it's definitely got more likeable characters.
Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and its love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.
When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.
I couldn't not mention another Sally Rooney novel on this list, but 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' was hit with mixed reviews by readers. It's no 'Normal People' but it's definitely worth a read.
If you love Rooney's writing style and find yourself drawn to her characters then this is one for you.
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Dolly Alderton is like our modern-day Nora Ephron, but the journalist's debut novel is one you can't miss. It's moving, relatable and a total whirlwind, but one story you won't be able to put down.
Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he's going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan.
If you're a fan of Normal People then share your recommended reads with us over on Her.ie's Instagram.
