Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney is an Irish writer best known for her three novels—Conversations with Friends, Normal People, and Beautiful World, Where Are You. She is seen as one of the most critically acclaimed millennial writers to date. Due to the success of her second novel, it was adapted into a TV show, produced by Hulu, BBC, and Screen Ireland.

Rooney’s unique writing style is full of wits and intelligence that resemble both young, aspiring authors as well as those more seasoned and mature. Nevertheless, being a millennial herself, it’s only appropriate that her novels are available as audiobooks. Luckily for anyone who wants to listen to them, some of Sally Rooney’s novels are available right here on Speechify.

A closer look at contemporary literature author—Sally Rooney

Born in 1991 in Castlebar, County Mayo, Sally Rooney is the middle child of parents Kiearn Rooney and Marie Farrell. She studied both in Dublin and New York, with studies in Ireland taking place at Trinity College Dublin, from which she graduated with a degree in American literature in 2013.

During her studies, Rooney joined the university debate team, about which she wrote her experiences in an essay titled Even If You Beat Me. Prior to pursuing a career as a writer, she was working in a restaurant. Interestingly enough, she is a self-described Marxist.

Sally Rooney showed off her interest in writing at an early age. Namely, she wrote her first novel when she was only 15, but it remains unreleased due to her not liking it. Nevertheless, her two poems were published in The Stinging Fly when she was in secondary school.

Understanding the unique writing style of Sally Rooney

If we were to describe Sally Rooney’s writing style in one word, it would be accessible. Be it her debut novel, Conversations with Friends, or her third book, Beautiful Word, Where Are You, her writing is just easy to enjoy for anyone. You can be an avid reader, or you may just be getting into reading—either way, you’ll find a place in your life for her books. It’s just that simple.

Rooney doesn’t drown her readers in pretentious dialogues. In fact, there are no conventional dialogue and speech marks present in her writings. This might require some getting used to, but soon enough, you’ll forget those conventional structures completely. All this makes you feel like you’re part of her books, not just an observer or reader.

Sally Rooney’s most popular books

As mentioned, Sally Rooney wrote three bestsellers, including Conversations with Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You. In the following, we’ll briefly discuss each of these three in hope of springing your interest in reading them or, better yet, listening to them in their audiobook format.

Normal People

Normal People is Sally Rooney’s second book, thus, you might wonder why we included it first on this list. Well, it’s the most famous one, and it has a pretty popular TV adaptation. This may make readers interested in checking out the show, too.

Normal People evolved from a short story that was published in The White Review literary magazine in 2016. In essence, it’s a coming-of-age tale that follows Marianne and Connell, a young Irish couple, during university as they question class, self-worth, and domestic violence.

In 2020, Normal People got its TV adaptation, with Marianne played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Connell by Paul Mescal. The director was Lenny Abrahamson, and Rooney and Alice Birch adapted the text for the TV script.

Conversations with Friends

Conversations with Friends is actually Sally Rooney’s first book, published in 2017. It tells a story about two young women—Frances and her best friend Bobbi—who mix up with Melissa and her husband Nick and form intimate relationships with each other in a love quadrangle.

The novel won various awards, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award in 2017. It was released at the same time when she wrote her famous short story, Mr Salary: Faber Stories, which is another piece of work by Rooney well worth mentioning.

Beautiful World, Where Are You

Once again, Rooney tackles themes of romance and social class in her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You. The book follows e-mail correspondences between two friends—Alice Kelleher and Eileen Lydon—who talk to each other about various things, including their relationships with Felix and Simon, the other two major characters.

Although not received as well as the previous two novels, Beautiful World, Where Are You was still hailed by the likes of The New York Times as well as The New Yorker. It’s a great book, regardless of whether the previous two novels from Rooney are more popular. In fact, it’s a great listen too, and you can enjoy it as an audiobook on Speechify right now.

Awards received by Sally Rooney

Back in real life, Sally Rooney’s work is generally well-received. She is liked by numerous fans, and the critics enjoy her work too. This is best seen through the number of major awards she won over the years for her literary work. Some of these include:

• The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 2017
• Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year in 2018 for Normal People
• Costa Book Awards for Normal People in 2018
• Encore Award for Normal People in 2019
• Dalkey Literary Awards for Beautiful World, Where Are You in 2022

Listen to other legendary authors with Speechify audiobooks

Sure enough, reading is great. But let’s be frank here—listening is even better. Therefore, why not enjoy Sally Rooney’s novels as audiobooks and multitask your way through her beautiful work? Moreover, why not listen to other legendary authors on Speechify?

From young adult novels to popular science and history books, Speechify’s collection is well worth it. In fact, when we’re talking about worth, there are over 60,000 audiobooks available. By signing up, you get to choose your first audiobook for just $1.