Normal People

Sally Rooney Faber & Faber €16.99 Rooney’s second novel is even more unique and perspicacious than her first. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Irish town, where Connell’s mum cleans Marianne’s house – a setup that leads them to form an intense, complicated bond. Complicated because at school Marianne is the unlovely misfit to Connell’s cool kid, and they hide their relationship from their peers. The social power imbalance continues when they attend university in Dublin, although here Marianne’s money translates to popularity while Connell feels out of place. It’s an eerily engrossing love story that should come with a health warning on account of the profound desolation that descends upon finishing. Gwen Smith