The next book, we'll see.'Īfter the interviewer stated it 'had to be revolutionary Marxism', Sally responded: 'Yeah, the only kind.' Speaking at the 2018 literature festival, she said: 'How can a love story be Marxist? Well I don't know the answer to that question. Marie spent two years volunteering in Lesotho in the eighties before becoming the director of the Linenhall, a community arts centre in Castlebar.ĭuring an interview ahead of the publishing of Normal People, she said she was aiming to write a 'Marxist love story'. Her mother Marie, was a a maths and science teacher, and father Kieran, a technician for Ireland's state-owned telecom company. The rights eventually sold for a rumoured five-figure sum, and it was published in 12 languages at once in 2017. Within months it was the subject of a seven-way bidding war between publishers. When her essay about her debating experiences was spotted by a London literary agent, who asked to see more, the student sent her the manuscript. The writer started her first novel, Conversations With Friends, in 2014 after starting a master's degree in American literature. She hoped to study sociology and English, but was only accepted into the latter program.Ī lot like her characters, she reinvented herself at University and became the star of the university debating team, who won the top university debating title in Europe.

While she's astonished the literary world becoming one of the youngest ever writers to win the prestigious Costa prize, she admits she had a 'terrible work ethic at school' and just wanted to be left to her own devices. Since Conversations with Friends came out in 2017, Sally's three novels have sold more than 1.3 million copies in the UK alone - and that's not counting pandemic sales which rocketed her back to the top of the best seller list thanks to the success of the TV adaptation of Normal People. All three novels are partly set in - or have characters from - rural western Ireland, while she has described herself as a 'solitary child' like Marianne in Normal People and went to Trinity College Dublin, like the protagonists in her first two novels. She's been described as 'Salinger for the Snapchat generation' and the voice of millennials everywhere with three hit novels and two TV shows under her belt.īut self-described Marxist Sally Rooney, 31, came from humble beginnings with her own life experiences heavily influencing her work.īorn in Castlebar, a town of 10,000 or so people in County Mayo, a rural part of western Ireland, her mother was a teacher and father a technician who raised her with strong socialist values.Īnd this is seen massively in her work.

Sally rooney first book