Sally Rooney

If you love modern Irish literature, then Sally Rooney is a name that speaks to you! This talented novelist, born on February 20, 1991 in Castlebar, County Mayo, has indeed shone all over the world with works of great sensitivity such as Conversation with Friends and Normal People. Her signature: stories of great finesse, intimate and tortured, which expose the generation of millenials, with their reflections and anxieties of everyday life…

Biography of Sally Rooney

A novelist straight out of Trinity College in Dublin

Sally Rooney was born in February 1991 in County Mayo, Ireland. At that time, her father worked for Telecom Éireann, and her mother ran an art center.

The young girl grew up with an older brother and a younger sister… She soon discovered a keen interest in learning and began studying at Trinity College Dublin, where she was elected as a scholar.

Initially, she decided to study political science for her master’s degree, but she quickly switched to a master’s degree in English and American literature.

After graduating, she worked multiple jobs before choosing a career as an author.

By 2015, she published an autobiographical essay titled Even if you beat me.

Then she follows up with her very first novel in 2017: Conversations with Friends in 2017. She counts there a polyamorous story, linking 4 dublinois: two young students of Trinity College, and an older married couple. A story that reveals all the complexity of the new generations, their questions within a modern society particularly complex and their quest for answers …

Critically acclaimed, Sally Rooney won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award.

Far from resting on her laurels, Sally Rooney released a second novel in 208: “Normal People”. It was an immediate success, selling over a million copies. It tells the love story of two young adults, Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron, from completely opposite social backgrounds.

Similar topics are addressed: love, social pressure, class differences, the search for self, sexuality, as well as the difficulty of new generations to find meaning in today’s society.

The success is such that the novel is even adapted into a series… A real springboard for the author, who knows an international notoriety. She is described as a contemporary Jane Austin, or even a J.D. Salinger. Flattering comparisons, which point all the glances towards the young novelist.

In 2021, she released her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You. A new novel particularly well received by the public and critics …

In 2022, Conversations with Friends is adapted as a new series. An initmist and complex show, which, although interesting, meets a more discreet success than Normal People.

Nevertheless, Sally Rooney has become an extremely popular figure in Irish literature. No doubt, her next writings will be a big hit!