Frontlist | Normal People streaming in India; know what the book is about

Frontlist | Normal People streaming in India; know what the book is about
on Jan 13, 2021

Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel Normal People catapulted her to literary stardom. It was the second book by the Irish author, who was 27 then. Set mostly in Dublin, the story revolves around Connell and Marianne, both classmates, who are divided by class differences among many other things. Connell is the popular guy in school, Marianne is the quiet, snappy one. And yet everything dissolves when they are together. What starts out as an adolescent secret turns a shade darker into the romance of their lifetimes. Through these characters, outlining their journey where they could not be with each other and yet were together all long, Rooney weaves an unforgettable tale specific to the times we are living in, and universal in the way it stays back. The characters meet to part and part to meet, in between creating a lifetime of stories, where they remain the sole protagonists even when the ink runs dry. The Booker longlist met with euphoric reviews when it came out, many hailing it is an instant classic. It also made it to several lists online. A review in The Guardian states, “Normal People may not be about being young right now, but better than that, it shows what it is to be young and in love at any time. It may not be absolutely contemporary, but it is a future classic.” The book was adapted for television in 2019 with the series matching up to the hype of the book. “Normal People tells its story in bursts and flashes, vignettes that glow up onscreen and fade into another. Watching it feels like walking through someone’s memories, sampling crucial bits of experience and image — a bike ride, a figure reflected in a pool — that, only in retrospect, turn out to have meant everything,” read a review in The New York Times. The series is finally streaming in India.