Normal People author Sally Rooney to publish new novel this fall

There's a new Sally Rooney book coming our way.

On Tuesday, publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced a new novel from the best-selling author to be released this fall. Beautiful World, Where Are You is the Irish author's third book — she previously penned Conversations With Friends, published in 2017 and Normal People in 2018. The latter was adapted into a television series in 2020 starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Conversations with Friends is also being adapted for television by the BBC and Hulu. With the new novel, Rooney moves from previous publisher Hogarth to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, signing a two-book deal.

Beautiful World, Where Are You tells the story of novelist Alice who meets warehouse worker Felix and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. Meanwhile in Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. According to the press release, "Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young —but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?" Sex, getting together and breaking apart, and worrying? Sounds like classic Rooney to us.

"Beautiful World, Where Are You is extraordinary for its compassion, humor, and lyrical delight," said Mitzi Angel, Publisher of FSG in a statement. "It's extraordinary for the vitality of its characters and for the way it pushes so many contemporary buttons with deadeye accuracy and feeling. Sally Rooney asks questions about things we hold dear: money, love, beauty, truth, success, God, the internet, art, and goodness itself. She shows us how precarious things are and how precious life is."

Beautiful World, Where Are You arrives on shelves Sept. 7.

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