Normal People

　　康尼爾（Connell）與瑪麗安（Marianne）兩人從小在愛爾蘭的鄉村間長大，卻來自兩個不同的世界。康尼爾的媽媽在瑪麗安的家中打掃，正因為如此，每天下課他會去瑪麗安的家中找母親，再順道一起回家。日久生情，慢慢地，康尼爾認識了瑪麗安，理解她的頑固與樸質的性格，而朋友不多的瑪麗安也漸漸和康尼爾熟識。

　　兩小無猜的愛情在進入大學以後變了調。在都柏林聖三一學院裡，階級的問題浮現了。瑪麗安越來越受歡迎，康尼爾則面對更多棘手的問題。這不僅僅是部愛情小說，莎莉．魯尼（Sally Rooney）的第二本小說為讀者開拓更深層的視野；透過主角，我們在征服與特權中、階級與種族間，載浮載沉。

　　作者莎莉．魯尼不到三十歲便出版了兩本小說。從小生長於都柏林，文章散見於報章雜誌，Normal People 是她繼 Conversations With Friends 後又一力作，探詢年輕人成長過程所面臨的疑惑，青澀的故事下，包藏對青春的追憶。（文 / 博客來編譯）

　　Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person’s life - a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us - blazingly - about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege. Alternating menace with overwhelming tenderness, Sally Rooney’s second novel breathes fiction with new life.