Sally Rooney, Normal People in Focus for Sales, Wins "Waterstones Book of the Year"

The novel by Irish author Sally Rooney, Normal People, was named Waterstones Book of the Year.

This is the second time this 27 year old woman has received this award this week, after her book was named novel of the year at the Irish Book Awards Book Tuesday night.

It was revealed last week that Normal People, who had been selected for the Man Booker Award, had been selected for the Costa Novel Award, alongside Limerick's author, Donal Ryan, From A Low and Quiet Sea .

The Waterstones Book of the Year is chosen by the booksellers and, if there is no cash prize, the winner can expect a strong increase in sales at its 293 stores in Ireland and the UK.

Last year's winner, Philip Pullman's Belle Sauvage, saw sales increase by over 350% in the Waterstones group, catapulting it to the top of Christmas fiction and making it one of the bestsellers. of 2017.

Rooney, who comes from Castlebar in Mayo County, is the editor of the literary magazine The Stinging Fly.

Normal People, following its debut in 2017, Conversations With Friends, tells the story of Marianne and Connell, two students of the Leaving Cert program in a small town in the west of Ireland. The book follows the couple relationship from two to three years after the supply of seats at Trinity College in Dublin.

Normal People is to be adapted for BBC Three by Irish director Lenny Abrahamson, an Oscar nominee.

Read more: "I do not know if I'll write another book" – Sally Rooney, author of "Normal People"

Review: Normal People Sally Rooney rejects the curse of the "second album" with all the effortless freshness of one of his characters

Online publishers