Conversations with Friends

Not to be confused with Conversations with Friends (TV series).

Conversations with Friends

File:Conversations with Friends (Rooney novel).png First edition cover
Author	Sally Rooney
Audio read by	Aoife McMahon
Country	Ireland
Language	English
Genre
Publisher	Faber & Faber
Publication date
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages
ISBN	978-0-571-33312-7
OCLC	1031891111
Dewey Decimal
LC Class

Conversations with Friends is the 2017 debut novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. The novel was published by Faber and Faber.

Background

The book was completed whilst Rooney was still studying to write and complete her master's degree in American literature. The book was subject to a seven-party auction for the publishing rights. Rights were eventually sold in 12 countries.

The novel was published in June 2017 by Faber and Faber. It was nominated for the 2018 Dylan Thomas Prize, and the 2018 Folio Prize.

Plot

The book details the relationships among four people – Frances (the narrator), Bobbi (her best friend), and Melissa and Nick (a married couple).

Reception

Conversations with Friends received positive reviews. Overall, critics enjoyed Rooney's prose, clarity, and sharp characters. Writing for The New Yorker, Alexandra Schwartz praises Rooney, noting that, "she writes with a rare, thrilling confidence, in a lucid and exacting style uncluttered with the sort of steroidal imagery and strobe flashes of figurative language that so many dutifully literary novelists employ." Schwartz continues, "one wonderful aspect of Rooney’s consistently wonderful novel is the fierce clarity with which she examines the self-delusion that so often festers alongside presumed self-knowledge." The Guardian similarly praised the author, noting how, "Rooney writes so well of the condition of being a young, gifted but self-destructive woman, both the mentality and physicality of it. She is alert to the invisible bars imprisoning the apparently free." Reviewing for Slate, Katy Waldman described how "Sally Rooney is a planter of small surprises, sowing them like landmines. They relate to behavior and psychology—characters zigging when you expect them to zag, from passivity to sudden aggression and back." Waldman further applauds the novel, noting that "Rooney herself is acute and sensitive—she may have pinned these fragile creatures to a board, but her eye is not cruel. Bobbi, Frances, Nick, and Melissa excel at endearing banter and hesitant, vulnerable disclosure. They are all thrillingly sharp, hyperverbal."

Television adaptation

Main article: Conversations with Friends (TV series)

After the success of the streaming adaptation of Normal People (2020), based on Rooney's second novel of the same name, Hulu/BBC Three announced their intention to develop a television adaptation of Conversations with Friends. Director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Alice Birch are attached to the project, which is set for a 2022 release date. The cast includes Alison Oliver as Frances, Sasha Lane as Bobbi, Jemima Kirke as Melissa, and Joe Alwyn as Nick.