Author Guide · Literary Fiction
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Sally Rooney wrote 100,000 words of her first novel in three months, while she was finishing a master's degree at Trinity College Dublin. Four novels later, her books have sold more than six million copies in over 47 languages, two of them have become BBC series, and not one of them puts dialogue in quotation marks. This page has every Sally Rooney book in the order it was published, the shorter books around the novels, and which one to read first.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 novels · Female authors · 2017–2024 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Sally Rooney has published four novels, between 2017 and 2024, and three shorter books alongside them: a standalone short story, an audiobook of two stories, and the screenplays of one of the television adaptations. So the count is four, or seven, depending on whether the short ones count. The four novels in order, and what each one is → If you have never read her, start with Normal People (2018).
Where to Start with Sally Rooney
If you have never read her
→ Normal People (2018). Her best-known novel, and the best way to see what makes her so good.
If you have only seen the TV series
→ Read Normal People or Conversations with Friends anyway. The prose, with no quotation marks, is a large part of what the screen versions cannot carry.
If you want friendship more than romance
→ Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), built around the emails between two best friends.
If you want grief and family
→ Intermezzo (2024), after at least one of the earlier novels. My list of books about brothers goes further into the same territory.
If you want something you can read in an hour
→ Mr Salary (2019), a single short story in a small book.
If you want more novels about love and power
→ My books about relationships list.
All 4 Sally Rooney Novels, in Order
Conversations with Friends
Frances, a student in Dublin who performs spoken-word poetry with her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi, is noticed by Melissa, an essayist and photographer in her late thirties, and grows close to Melissa's husband Nick, an actor. Rooney wrote it while studying for her master's degree. It won her the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and became a 12-episode BBC Three and Hulu series in 2022.
Read this to see where it all began. It is looser than Normal People, but all her favourite themes are already there.
— LisanneNormal People
Connell and Marianne go to the same secondary school in County Sligo, and his mother cleans her family's house. The relationship they keep secret at school follows them to Trinity College Dublin, across the years of Ireland's post-2008 downturn. It grew out of Rooney's 2016 short story “At the Clinic”, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Costa Novel Award and Waterstones Book of the Year in 2018. The 2020 BBC Three and Hulu series starred Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.
This is the one to start with. It is the book that made her name and the best way to see what makes her so good, and if you have only seen the series, the novel is quieter, and you spend more time inside their heads.
— LisanneBeautiful World, Where Are You
Alice Kelleher, a novelist, and her best friend Eileen Lydon, an editor at a literary magazine, write each other long emails, which alternate with chapters about their lives and about Felix, who works in a warehouse, and Simon, a policy adviser. The title comes from a poem by Friedrich Schiller. It won Novel of the Year at the 2022 Dalkey Literary Awards, and Rooney did not accept any offers to adapt it for the screen.
Read this once you already know her voice and want to see it turned outward, toward politics and toward the discomfort of being a successful novelist writing about people like herself.
— LisanneIntermezzo
Two brothers deal with the death of their father. Peter, a 32-year-old human rights lawyer, is caught between his younger girlfriend Naomi and his ex-girlfriend Sylvia; Ivan, a 22-year-old former chess prodigy, begins a relationship with Margaret, a 36-year-old arts programme director. It is Rooney's first novel centred on men and on the relationship between brothers. It became the fastest-selling book in Ireland in 2024 and won the 2025 Sky Arts Award for literature.
Her most daring book. Don't start here, but it may be her best once you know the others.
— LisanneThe Other Books: Stories and Scripts
Besides the four novels, three shorter books carry Rooney's name. None of them is the place to start, but they complete the bibliography.
- Mr Salary (2019) — a short story first published in Granta in 2016 and shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, reissued by Faber as a slim standalone book in its Faber Stories series.Amazon
Bookshop.org and more
- Two Stories (2020) — an audiobook of “Mr Salary” and “Color and Light”, a story first published in The New Yorker in 2019, released by Audible and Faber.Amazon
Bookshop.org and more
- Conversations with Friends: The Scripts (2022) — the complete screenplays of the 2022 series, with an introduction by the director Lenny Abrahamson. Faber publishes it under Rooney's name, but the episodes were written by Alice Birch, Mark O'Halloran, Meadhbh McHugh and Susan Soon He Stanton.Amazon
Bookshop.org and more
Sally Rooney's Books in Order of Publication
Novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) and Intermezzo (2024).
Other books: Mr Salary (2019), Two Stories (audiobook, 2020) and Conversations with Friends: The Scripts (2022).
None of the novels is a sequel, and the characters do not carry over from one book to the next. The closest thing to a link is “At the Clinic”, the 2016 short story in which Marianne and Connell first appeared, two years before Normal People.
The years · 1991–2026
Quick facts about Sally Rooney
- Known for
- Sally Rooney is known for four novels, sold in more than 47 languages and written without quotation marks around dialogue, above all Normal People, which became a BBC series.
- 1991
- Born in Castlebar, County Mayo
- 2018
- Normal People
- 2024
- Intermezzo
- 2026
- Faber stops UK sales; UK sales jump 291%
- Born
- 20 February 1991, Castlebar, County Mayo
- Lives
- Castlebar, the town she grew up in
- Education
- Trinity College Dublin: BA in English (2013), MPhil in the literature of the Americas
- Debating
- Top debater at the European Universities Debating Championships, 2013
- Novels
- Four, 2017–2024
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber, which stopped selling her books in the UK on 14 October 2026
- Sales
- More than six million copies, in over 47 languages. In the week after Faber stopped UK sales, her UK sales rose 291% to 4,531 copies (Nielsen BookScan)
- On screen
- Normal People (2020) and Conversations with Friends (2022), BBC Three and Hulu
- Awards
- Costa Novel Award 2018, Irish Novel of the Year 2018, Encore Award 2019, Sky Arts Award 2025
- Recognition
- Time 100, 2022
- Married
- John Prasifka, 2020
The red mark is 2018: Normal People, the novel this guide suggests starting with if you have never read her.
How Sally Rooney Writes: Dialogue Without Quotation Marks
Open any of her novels and the first thing you notice is what is missing. People speak, and nothing on the page marks where their words begin. In a 2018 interview with Stet magazine, Rooney said she could not remember ever really using quotation marks, and did not understand what they were for in a novel.
The result is that speech and thought sit on the same line. In Normal People, Connell and Marianne say one thing, mean another, and the reader has to work out which is which, the same way they do. In Beautiful World, Where Are You, half the book is emails, so the characters finally get to say everything at length and still miss each other.
The other constant is money. Marianne's mother employs Connell's mother as a cleaner; Felix works in a warehouse while Alice is paid to write novels. Rooney has said that even when two people are alone together, class and gender are still in the room, and her plots are built on exactly that.
Watch
Sally Rooney on turning life into novels
Filmed for Louisiana Channel at the Louisiana Literature festival in Denmark. She talks about college life and the step into adulthood, about Marxism and social class, about how she writes, and about how much of herself she sees in her characters.
Frequently asked questions about Sally Rooney's books
How many books has Sally Rooney written?
Sally Rooney has written four novels: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) and Intermezzo (2024). Counting everything published under her name, there are also Mr Salary (2019), the audiobook Two Stories (2020) and Conversations with Friends: The Scripts (2022).
What are Sally Rooney's books in order?
In order of publication: Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Mr Salary (2019), Two Stories (2020), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), Conversations with Friends: The Scripts (2022) and Intermezzo (2024).
Which Sally Rooney book should I read first?
Normal People (2018). It is her best-known novel and the clearest introduction to her style. None of her novels depends on another, so you can read the rest in any order, but Intermezzo works best once you know her earlier books.
Who is Sally Rooney?
Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist, born on 20 February 1991 in Castlebar, County Mayo. She is the author of Conversations with Friends, Normal People, Beautiful World, Where Are You and Intermezzo. Her novels have sold more than six million copies, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Where is Sally Rooney from?
Castlebar, County Mayo, in the west of Ireland. She grew up there, studied at Trinity College Dublin, spent time in New York, and now lives in Castlebar again.
What genre are Sally Rooney's books?
Literary fiction: stories about friendship, love and money among young people in Ireland.
Why doesn't Sally Rooney use quotation marks?
Her novels set dialogue without them. In a 2018 interview with Stet magazine, Rooney said she could not remember ever really using quotation marks and did not understand the function they perform in a novel.
What is Normal People about?
Connell and Marianne, two teenagers from different social classes at the same secondary school in County Sligo, whose on-and-off relationship follows them to Trinity College Dublin. Connell's mother works as a cleaner for Marianne's family. The novel grew out of Rooney's 2016 short story “At the Clinic”.
What is Intermezzo about?
Two brothers after the death of their father: Peter, a 32-year-old human rights lawyer torn between two women, and Ivan, a 22-year-old former chess prodigy who begins a relationship with Margaret, a 36-year-old arts programme director. It is Rooney's first novel centred on men and on the relationship between brothers.
Is there a Normal People TV series?
Yes. Normal People was made into a 12-part BBC Three and Hulu series in 2020, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell, with Rooney as a writer and executive producer. It received four Emmy nominations. Conversations with Friends followed as a series in 2022.
Has Sally Rooney written anything besides novels?
Yes: short stories, poems and essays. Her first published work was two poems in The Stinging Fly. The short story Mr Salary was published as a standalone book in 2019, and her 2015 essay “Even If You Beat Me”, about competitive debating, is what first brought her to the attention of a literary agent.
What did Sally Rooney study?
English at Trinity College Dublin, where she was elected a scholar in 2011 and graduated in 2013. She started a master's in politics, then took an MPhil in the literature of the Americas instead. At Trinity she was also a debater, and in 2013 she was the top debater at the European Universities Debating Championships.
How old is Sally Rooney?
Sally Rooney was born on 20 February 1991, which makes her 35 in September 2026.
Is Sally Rooney writing a new novel?
No fifth novel had been announced as of September 2026. Her most recent novel is Intermezzo (2024), and none of her books is a sequel to another.
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Footnotes
- Sally Rooney — Wikipedia
- Normal People — Wikipedia
- Conversations with Friends — Wikipedia
- Beautiful World, Where Are You — Wikipedia
- Intermezzo (novel) — Wikipedia
- Sally Rooney — Faber
- Conversations with Friends: The Scripts — Faber
- Sally Rooney: On Transforming Life Into Novels — Louisiana Channel
- On Rooney's quotation marks, citing her 2018 Stet interview — Her Campus
Bibliography last verified 10 September 2026.
Nothing here was suggested by a machine.
I picked these books myself,
and the reasons are on the page.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“It's my job to write about whatever comes into my head.”
— Sally Rooney, in an interview with Emma Brockes, 2021
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
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