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Normal People by Sally Rooney.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Normal People is the story of Marianne and Connell who grow up in a small town in the west of Ireland. The novel covers their relationship over four years as they finish school and go on to study at Trinity College in Dublin.

Reading about their lives and the way they are clearly in love with each other is frustrating, and at times I wanted to bang their heads together to help them see what is right in front of them.

The book is beautifully written, with great dialogue (even though there are no quotation marks), and the scene-setting descriptions are wonderful. The characters are engaging and as I reader I grew to care deeply about them over the course of the story.

The only thing I didn’t like, initially, was that lack of quotation marks, but as I got used to reading without them, I came to realise they aren’t actually that necessary.

I absolutely recommend this novel. Quiet and beautiful. Just superb.