Conversations with Friends - by Sally Rooney (Hardcover)

About the Book

Originally published: London: Faber & Faber Limited, 2017.

Book Synopsis

NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES - From the New York Times bestselling author of Normal People . . . "[A] cult-hit . . . [a] sharply realistic comedy of adultery and friendship."--Entertainment Weekly

SALLY ROONEY NAMED TO THE TIME 100 NEXT LIST - WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK) YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD - ONE OF BUZZFEED'S BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE - ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vogue, Slate - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Elle

Frances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, they meet a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into her world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and handsome husband, Nick. But however amusing Frances and Nick's flirtation seems at first, it begins to give way to a strange--and then painful--intimacy.

Written with gemlike precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth, and the messy edges of female friendship.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

"Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they're figuring out how to be adults."--Celeste Ng, Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast

"The dialogue is superb, as are the insights about communicating in the age of electronic devices. Rooney has a magical ability to write scenes of such verisimilitude that even when little happens they're suspenseful."--Curtis Sittenfeld, The Week

"Rooney has the gift of imbuing everyday life with a sense of high stakes . . . a novel of delicious frictions."--New York

"A writer of rare confidence, with a lucid, exacting style . . . One wonderful aspect of Rooney's consistently wonderful novel is the fierce clarity with which she examines the self-delusion that so often festers alongside presumed self-knowledge. . . . But Rooney's natural power is as a psychological portraitist. She is acute and sophisticated about the workings of innocence; the protagonist of this novel about growing up has no idea just how much of it she has left to do."--Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker

"This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I'm not alone."--Sarah Jessica Parker (Instagram)

Review Quotes

"A writer of rare confidence, with a lucid, exacting style . . . But Rooney's natural power is as a psychological portraitist. She is acute and sophisticated about the workings of innocence; the protagonist of this novel about growing up has no idea just how much of it she has left to do."--The New Yorker

"Rooney has the gift of imbuing everyday life with a sense of high stakes...a novel of delicious frictions."--New York Magazine

"Rooney writes so well of the condition of being a young, gifted but self-destructive woman, both the mentality and physicality of it. She is alert to the invisible bars imprisoning the apparently free."--The Guardian

"A novelist to watch: An addictive debut, with nods to Tender is the Night, heralds a bright new talent."--The Sunday Times

"Conversations with Friends paints a nuanced, page-turning portrait of a whip-smart university student in the throes of an affair with an older married man."--Zadie Smith, Elle

"Rooney has a magical ability to write scenes of such verisimilitude that even when little happens they're suspenseful."--Curtis Sittenfeld, The Week

"Sharp, funny, thought-provoking . . . a really great portrait of two young women as they're figuring out how to be adults."--Celeste Ng, "Late Night with Seth Meyers Podcast"

"This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I'm not alone."--Sarah Jessica Parker

"A coming-of-age story that's weightier and wiser than you might expect."--Vulture

"Sally Rooney's debut novel is a remarkably charming exploration of that very uncharming subject: the human ego . . . Conversations With Friends sparkles with controlled rhetoric. But it ends up emphasizing the truths exploding in the silences."--Slate

"In this searing, insightful debut, Rooney offers an unapologetic perspective on the vagaries of relationships . . . a treatise on married life, the impact of infidelity, the ramifications of one's actions, and how the person one chooses to be with can impact one's individuality."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Readers who enjoyed Belinda McKeon's Tender and Caitriona Lally's Eggshells will enjoy this exceptional debut."--Library Journal, starred review

"A smart, sexy, realistic portrayal of a woman finding herself."--Booklist, starred review

"The book of the summer."--Refinery29

"Fascinating, ferocious and shrewd. Sally Rooney has the sharpest eye for all of the most delicate cruelties of human interaction."--Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies, winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

About the Author

Sally Rooney was born in the west of Ireland in 1991. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta and The London Review of Books. Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, she is the author of Conversations with Friends. In 2019, she was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list.