Alfresco Literary Book Discussion Group

Join us for the first autumn book meeting of the Alfresco Literary Book Discussion group!

The discussions are held on the fourth Wednesday of most months.

Details:

6:00 pm

Weather permitting, the discussion will held at the tables that are outside the restaurant.

LOCATION*  Hops ’44 

625 Middle Turnpike

Storrs, Connecticut 06268

Wednesday, September 25

NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney

Normal People is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. Normal People is Rooney’s second novel, published after Conversations with Friends (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018.The book became a best-seller in the US, selling almost 64,000 copies in hardcover in its first four months of release. A critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated television adaptation of the same name aired from April 2020 on BBC Three and Hulu. A number of publications ranked it one of the best books of the 2010s.

Synopsis
The novel follows the complex friendship and relationship between two teenagers, Connell and Marianne, who both attend the same secondary school in County Sligo, Ireland, and, later, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). It is set during the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, from 2011 through 2015. Connell is a popular, handsome, and highly intelligent secondary school student who begins a relationship with the unpopular, intimidating, equally intelligent Marianne, whose mother employs Connell’s mother as a cleaner. Connell keeps the affair a secret from school friends out of shame, but ends up attending Trinity with Marianne after the summer and reconciling. Well-off Marianne blossoms at university, becoming pretty and popular, while Connell struggles for the first time in his life to fit in properly with his peers. The two weave in and out of each other’s lives during their university years, developing an intense bond that exposes their traumas and insecurities.