Books Like Normal People (10 Books)

Normal People was published by Sally Rooney in 2018. Here is a list of 10 books like Normal People by Sally Rooney.

Last update: January 11, 2024

1. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1984)

"Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman)."

Milan Kundera's seminal work, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, is a mesmerizing exploration of love, fate, and the human experience, following the lives of complex characters as they navigate the seemingly weightless yet profound essence of existence.

📇 320 Pages
📝 80,000 - 96,000 Word Count
⏱️ 11 Hours Reading Time

2. Norwegian Wood (1987)

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

In the mesmerizing Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami transports readers to a nostalgic Japan of the 1960s. With themes of love, loss, and coming of age, this lyrical masterpiece resonates long after the final pages.

📇 296 Pages
📝 74,000 - 88,800 Word Count
⏱️ 10 Hours Reading Time

3. The Secret History (1992)

"Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it."

Donna Tartt's compelling novel, The Secret History, takes readers on a dark and twisted journey into the secretive and sinister world of a group of eccentric college students, uncovering secrets, obsession, and the blurred line between morality and immorality.

📇 559 Pages
📝 139,750 - 167,700 Word Count
⏱️ 19 Hours Reading Time

4. Call Me By Your Name (2007)

"We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste!"

"Call Me By Your Name" by Andre Aciman is a poignant and sensuous coming-of-age tale set in 1980s Italy. Elio, a 17-year-old, discovers love and desire when a charming older visitor arrives and awakens his heart, leading to a transformative summer of longing and self-discovery.

📇 248 Pages
📝 62,000 - 74,400 Word Count
⏱️ 8 Hours Reading Time

5. The Marriage Plot (2011)

"Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A bruise in your mind. You just got to be careful not to touch it where it hurts. It's always there, though."

"The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides is a captivating exploration of love, literature, and the complexities of relationships. Set in the 1980s, it follows the entangled lives of three college graduates grappling with the polarities of passion, faith, and societal expectations.

📇 406 Pages
📝 101,500 - 121,800 Word Count
⏱️ 14 Hours Reading Time

6. The Interestings (2013)

"She recognized that that is how friendships begin: one person reveals a moment of strangeness, and the other person decides just to listen and not exploit it."

In "The Interestings" by Meg Wolitzer, a group of talented teenagers forging lifelong friendships at an arts summer camp must navigate the complexities of ambition, envy, and the realities of adulthood, forever questioning the true meaning of success and happiness.

📇 468 Pages
📝 117,000 - 140,400 Word Count
⏱️ 16 Hours Reading Time

7. A Little Life (2015)

"You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are - not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving - and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad - or good - it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well."

"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara is a powerful and haunting novel that delves into the complicated lives of four friends in New York City, exploring their triumphs, tragedies, and the enduring bonds that shape their existence.

📇 720 Pages
📝 180,000 - 216,000 Word Count
⏱️ 24 Hours Reading Time

8. Conversations With Friends (2017)

"Gradually the waiting began to feel less like waiting and more like this was simply what life was: the distracting tasks undertaken while the thing you are waiting for continues not to happen."

Conversations With Friends, the captivating debut novel by Sally Rooney, explores the intricate relationships and desires of four unforgettable characters, navigating the complexities of love, friendship, and the blurred boundaries of intimacy in modern-day Dublin.

📇 304 Pages
📝 76,000 - 91,200 Word Count
⏱️ 10 Hours Reading Time

9. The Idiot (2017)

"Even though I had a deep conviction that I was good at writing, and that in some way I already was a writer, this conviction was completely independent of my having ever written anything, or being able to imagine ever writing anything, that I thought anyone would like to read."

"The Idiot" by Elif Batuman is a captivating and hilarious coming-of-age novel that follows Selin, a Turkish-American freshman at Harvard, as she navigates love, language, and the complexities of adulthood in the 1990s. A thought-provoking and witty exploration of identity and the turbulent uncertainties of youth.

📇 423 Pages
📝 105,750 - 126,900 Word Count
⏱️ 14 Hours Reading Time

10. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)

"They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

In Ocean Vuong's debut novel, "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous," he weaves a stunning and lyrical narrative about love, beauty, and the unspoken complexities of family ties, exploring the resilience and fragility of our memories as we strive to find our place in the world.

📇 246 Pages
📝 61,500 - 73,800 Word Count
⏱️ 8 Hours Reading Time