16 books to read if you loved 'Normal People'
Samantha Grindell
- Fans of Sally Rooney's "Normal People" are moved by the love story between college students Connell and Marianne, as well the characters' individual journeys of self-discovery.
- The novel was a best-seller, and it was even turned into a popular Hulu show in 2020.
- Although "Normal People" is special, there are a number of other books that will satisfy readers who love Rooney's work.
- Whether you're looking for an intense romantic tale, a coming-of-age story, a narrative that blurs timelines, or just a book with incredible prose, there's a novel for you.
"Conversations With Friends" by Sally Rooney
Rooney's "Conversations With Friends" actually came out before "Normal People," and themes of first love and self-discovery are abundantly clear in both texts.
Frances and Bobbi are at the heart of the novel, lovers who transitioned into platonic friends after their high school romance. Frances is the wandering writer, while Bobbi is the fiercely confident performer. Somehow they complete each other, almost functioning as one person as they perform spoken word poems together.
But their dynamic changes when they meet Melissa, a famous photographer, and her actor husband Nick. Melissa welcomes the girls into her life, and Bobbi is immediately in awe of Melissa while Frances slowly finds herself gravitating toward Nick, who is 12 years her senior.
Frances and Nick fall into an affair, and they're both surprised by the depth of their connection — which in no way lessens the feelings they have for Bobbi and Melissa. Like "Normal People," "Conversations With Friends" is equal parts romance and personal growth story, as readers watch Frances discover who she is and what she wants through the affair.
"Sweetbitter" by Stephanie Danler
In Stephanie Danler's "Sweetbitter," Tess doesn't know a soul when she moves to New York at 22, stumbling into a job at one of the best restaurants in the city and waiting for her life to start.
The world of the restaurant quickly becomes her life, even as the waitstaff teases her and the job exhausts her. As she finds her footing, Tess is particularly drawn to Simone, the restaurant's sommelier, and Jake, a bartender who has a romantic history with Simone. Tess' own romance with Jake becomes inevitable, even as it causes problems for her professionally.
Danler's writing style immerses the reader in the high-stakes world of a restaurant, and it's almost painful in its poignant description of being young in New York. Plus, like "Normal People," "Sweetbitter" was adapted into a show on Starz, so you can absorb the story in two ways.
"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ifemelu and Obinze's young love develops in their homeland of Nigeria. But as a military dictatorship takes root in their native country, they know they have to leave — separately.
Ifemelu ends up in America, where she struggles with the reality of life as a Black person in the US, while Obinze finds himself living undocumented in London as a result of the terror attack on the twin towers on September 11.
They live apart for 13 years, with Obinze eventually finding wealth in a democratic Nigeria and Ifemelu making it as a blogger. But they've never forgotten each other, and the almost-couple will have to figure out if they can make their love work as adults in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah."
"The Interestings" by Meg Wolitzer
Meet the Interestings: six friends who meet at a summer camp for young, creative minds in the 1970s. They all think they're the center of the universe, convinced they're destined for greatness.
Jules Jacobson is the readers' entrance point into the group, as she looks at her friends with awe as they fulfill their prophecies of success while she struggles with how ordinary her life becomes.
But in the background, one of the Interestings does something unforgivable, and the dynamic of the friendship changes forever. Wolitzer's sweeping novel is about friendship that spans generations, and it studies the moments that create lifelong bonds.
"Call Me By Your Name" by André Aciman
You might be familiar with the film adaptation of André Aciman's "Call Me By Your Name," which stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. But even if you've seen the film, the book is worth the read, as Aciman's biting prose conveys the exhilaration and pain of first love in a way few other works do.
Elio is 17 when American graduate student Oliver arrives at his family's Italian villa to study with his father in the 1980s. Neither Elio nor Oliver expects the spark they feel for each other, both doing all they can to ignore their attraction. But when they reach their breaking point and discover their feelings are reciprocal, they luxuriate in their fleeting romance, meeting their true selves for the first time through their love for each other.
Like "Normal People," "Call Me By Your Name" spends many of its pages exploring the nature of desire, showing readers how the things they want can shape the people they become.
"The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett
In the 1950s, Desiree and Stella Vignes grew up as "the twins" in Mallard, Louisiana, a town that doesn't exist on a map. The pair run away from their small, Black community at 16 to New Orleans, with the intention of starting over together.
But when Stella figures out she can pass for white, she crafts a plan to leave the life she's known — and Desiree — behind. For the first time, the girls live their lives apart, carrying the pain of being away from each other each day. But when their daughters meet in the '80s, the lie Stella has carefully upheld threatens to fall apart, leading the Vignes girls back to each other after decades of separation.
Brit Bennett's "The Vanishing Half" is both a family saga and a history lesson on passing in America told from a deeply personal perspective. The work brilliantly depicts the ways small choices can change an entire life.
"One Day" by David Nicholls
David Nicholls gives us "One Day," a years-long romance between Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley, in pieces.
The story begins on July 15 in the '80s, when the duo graduate college and have a whirlwind day together. Nicholls then gives readers an updated look at their relationship on the same day over 20 years, showing the highs, lows, and in-betweens of their bond.
Whatever changes they're experiencing, Dex and Emma are always drawn to each other, struggling with misconnections and bad timing. The book — and the film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway — is a startling look at the consuming nature of true love.
"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara
Jude is the protagonist of a Hanya Yanagihara's "A Little Life," and he's a man haunted by early childhood traumas that define him, much like Marianne in "Normal People."
Readers get to know Jude through his friendship with three other young men who seem to revolve around him. As they grow up together, Jude, who becomes a successful lawyer, slowly unravels under the weight of his memories, and he's in desperate need of support from his friends.
The novel is emotional and disturbing at times, unafraid to confront the painful nature of being human.
"Girl, Woman, Other" by Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo weaves together the narratives of 12 Black, British women in "Girl, Woman, Other."
The characters include a Black, lesbian playwright; an investment banker; a cleaner; and even a 93-year-old woman reflecting on her life. They're all different, but there's a sameness about them as they navigate their race in a modern UK, attempting to reconcile a history of oppression with the more subtle forms of racism they still experience.
There's a poetic lilt to Evaristo's prose, urging the enthralling story along with beautiful words and dynamic characters you'll want to understand.
"The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
Despite the title, "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller actually follows the life of Achilles' closest companion, Patroclus, who is best known in mythology for his death, which drives Achilles mad with grief.
Miller puts a fresh lens on the well-known tale, focusing on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus that develops in their boyhood. Their friendship becomes something more, and the duo have to reckon with what their feelings for each other mean as Achilles faces a fatal prophecy about his involvement in the Trojan war.
"The Song of Achilles" is both a war story and a beautiful look at first love, making Homer's epic accessible and meaningful in a whole new way.
"Her Body and Other Parties" by Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado's "Her Body and Other Parties" is a bit different from the other books on this list, as it's a collection of short stories rather than a novel. But its tone and subject matter is similar to "Normal People" despite the different narrative format, as the common thread of the stories in Machado's collection is women and the violence they face because of their gender.
Some of the stories will seem familiar to readers — Machado modernizes the horror story of "The Green Ribbon" and reimagines every "Law and Order: SVU" episode, transforming it into a world of ghosts and longing. But others are entirely her own, like "Real Women Have Bodies," in which an unknown virus is causing young women to literally disappear, leading some to attach themselves to prom dresses to retain some bodily form.
There's humor, drama, and intimacy in "Her Body and Other Parties," and each story in the collection will move you in different ways.
"A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan weaves together interconnected narratives in "A Visit from the Goon Squad," with separate stories tying the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aged punk rocker, and his employee Sasha, a kleptomaniac.
The chapters almost function as individual stories, but they take on new meaning as the connections between the distinct tales become clear. An anachronistic structure, tableaux from all over the world, and an all-encompassing love of music define the book.
Egan's prose speak to the importance of vulnerability, and they remind readers we often have no idea what's happening in the minds of those around us.
"The Idiot" by Elif Batuman
Like "Normal People," "The Idiot" tells the story of a college student trying to find her place in the world.
Selin just started her freshman year at Harvard, and being the daughter of Turkish immigrants weighs heavily on her mind as she strives for success. During the year, she stumbles into an email correspondence with Ivan, a Hungarian student living across the world.
When she goes to Hungary for the summer, Selin is consumed by the unfamiliar rush of first love and her newfound love of writing. Filled with humor and depth, "The Idiot" is about finding yourself.
"Queenie" by Candice Carty-Williams
As a Black, Jamaican woman, Queenie feels out of place at her London newspaper job, uneasily comparing herself to her white coworkers.
But when she and her white boyfriend break up, Queenie finds herself feeling out of control, making decisions — particularly with men — she isn't sure she feels good about or even wanted to do.
Like Marianne in "Normal People," Queenie struggles to understand herself and the person she is becoming in Candice Carty-Williams' sharp novel. Every young woman will recognize something of herself in the honest writing.
"My Dark Vanessa" by Kate Elizabeth Russell
"Normal People" and "My Dark Vanessa" both grapple with the boundaries of sexual relationships, living in the gray area between right and wrong.
In Kate Elizabeth Russell's novel, Vanessa Wye finds herself in a sexual relationship with her 42-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane, when she is just 15. Vanessa doesn't think of the relationship as nonconsensual — until another of Strane's students reaches out to her with allegations against him when she's an adult.
The upheaval from her past forces Vanessa to reexamine the defining relationship of her adolescence and the first man she ever loved, making her question everything she's told herself about what happened when she was a teen.
Russell urges readers to look at the complexity of the situation, laying plain the ways trauma, sexual awakening, love, and power can coexist.
"In Five Years" by Rebecca Serle
"In Five Years" asks how you would change your life if you knew what was going to happen.
Dannie Kohan's plan is on track. In one day, she performs well at the job interview of a lifetime and agrees to marry her long-term boyfriend. But when she goes to sleep that night, she wakes up five years in the future, with a different man beside her and his ring on her finger.
Dannie only has one hour in the future before she's yanked back to the present, and she tries to push aside the experience as a vivid dream. But when she runs into the other man four and a half years later, Dannie has to confront what she really wants and find out if she's willing to change her plans to find true happiness.
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