Sally Rooney: Normal People

What this episode covers

Normal People was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won the Costa Novel Award. Sally Rooney discusses her sophomore novel, a coming-of-age story set in contemporary Ireland. An exploration of mutual fascination, friendship and love, Normal People takes us from the first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t. She is heard in conversation with bestselling and critically acclaimed author, Sheila Heti. Sally Rooney was born in the west of Ireland in 1991. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta and The London Review of Books. Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, she is the author of Conversations with Friends. In 2019, she was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list and she is the current editor of The Stinging Fly. Her latest novel, Normal People was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Costa Book Award, making her the youngest ever recipient of the award. Sheila Heti is the author of eight books, including the novels Motherhood, How Should a Person Be?, Ticknor, and the story collection, The Middle Stories. She was named one of "The New Vanguard" by The New York Times; a list of fifteen women writers from around the world who are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." Her books have been translated into twenty-two languages. She has spoken at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the New Yorker Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Hammer Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at universities across North America, and festivals internationally.