Books Like Normal People

Why Each Pick

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

More Sally Rooney, with the same close attention to what people can't say to each other. Two Irish brothers, a Dublin barrister in his thirties and a twenty-two-year-old chess player, drift through grief after their father's death, each tangled in a difficult romance. The central bond is between brothers rather than lovers, it is longer at 454 pages, and Peter's chapters use a more fractured, experimental style.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

The closest match in feel: two people whose bond lasts decades and keeps going wrong in ways neither can say out loud. Sam and Sadie meet as children and later build video games together, and their friendship is as intense and fragile as Connell and Marianne's. It is not a romance in the usual sense, covers far more years and is longer, at 416 pages.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Two people circling each other for years, told by moving between past and present. Poppy and Alex take a trip together every summer as best friends, until something goes wrong between them. It shares Normal People's long will-they-won't-they and its focus on what goes unsaid, but it is a much lighter rom-com, warmer and funnier, with a happier tone.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

For readers who loved following Connell and Marianne from school into adulthood. Macy and Elliot are childhood best friends who fall in love as teenagers, split painfully and meet again eleven years later, and the book moves between the two timelines. It is a more traditional romance than Rooney's, with clearer answers and much less ambiguity.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

For readers drawn to the class story in Normal People. Richard, a student from a modest California background, hides where he comes from to join a circle of wealthy classics students at a Vermont college. Like Connell at Trinity, he is an outsider trying to belong. It is dark academia rather than romance, with a murder revealed on the first page, and runs 559 pages.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The classic American novel about love and social class. Jay Gatsby builds a fortune to win back Daisy Buchanan, who married into old money. Like Normal People, it is short and precise, and its lovers are kept apart as much by status and pride as by circumstance. It is set among the rich in 1920s New York and told by an observer, Nick Carraway, not by the lovers themselves.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Another love story across a class divide. Louisa Clark, a working-class young woman, takes a job caring for Will Traynor, a wealthy man left paralyzed after an accident. Like Normal People, much of the tension comes from what the two can and can't say to each other. It is more conventional and openly emotional, and its central storyline deals with disability and end-of-life choices.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

For readers who connected with the inner lives of Normal People's teenagers. Charlie writes letters about his first year of high school, his new friends and his first love, while something from his past comes slowly into view. It is a short coming-of-age novel, at 213 pages, set in an American high school. Content note: it deals with abuse, mental illness and suicide.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

For readers moved by the depression storyline in Normal People. Esther Greenwood, a gifted college student, spends a summer at a New York magazine and slides into a severe depression. Plath writes about mental illness with the same plain, unsentimental honesty Rooney brings to it. It is set in the 1950s and has no love story at its center. Content note: suicide attempt.