Reading Order
Conversations with Friends Reading Order
Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends (2017) is a complete standalone novel and Rooney's debut. There is no sequel. The novel follows Frances, a twenty-one-year-old Dublin student and spoken word performer, and her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi, as they become entangled with a married couple — journalist Melissa and actor Nick. The novel shares thematic concerns with Rooney's Normal People (2018) and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) but the characters are entirely unrelated.
Where to start
Conversations with Friends
Complete Conversations with Friends Book List
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Conversations with Friends
Sally Rooney·2017·Standalone debut — two Dublin students become entangled with a married couple; a precise, detached examination of desire, class, and how people talk to and around each other
Conversations with Friends — Frequently Asked Questions
Should I read Conversations with Friends or Normal People first?
The two novels are entirely independent — Normal People has no characters from Conversations with Friends and vice versa. Normal People is more widely loved; Conversations with Friends is darker and more formally minimal. Most readers who love one also love the other. If you want to try Rooney in order, Conversations with Friends is her debut; if you want to try her most popular book first, start with Normal People.
Is Conversations with Friends about polyamory?
The novel depicts Frances having an affair with Nick, who is married to Melissa. It is not a novel that advocates for or against any particular relationship structure — it observes what happens with a quality of clinical, detached attention. The four-way dynamic between Frances, Bobbi, Nick, and Melissa is complicated in ways the novel is more interested in depicting than judging.
Is Conversations with Friends appropriate for all readers?
The novel contains explicit sexual content and deals with themes including chronic illness, an affair with a married man, depression, and economic anxiety. It is adult literary fiction. Some readers find Rooney's flat, present-tense prose style and her interest in morally compromised characters difficult; others find it exactly what they were looking for.
Was Conversations with Friends adapted for TV?
Yes — Conversations with Friends was adapted into a BBC/Hulu miniseries in 2022, starring Alison Oliver (Frances), Sasha Lane (Bobbi), Joe Alwyn (Nick), and Jemima Kirke (Melissa). Rooney was not involved in the adaptation's screenplay.
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