Normal People‘s Sally Rooney Has A New Story For You

While we embraced a "new normal" in April 2020, BBC's Normal People allowed us to lose ourselves in the a sexy-but-still-sad romance.

Luckily, Sally Rooney, the Irish author of Normal People, the book the show was based on, has more sexy sadness in store for us. In September, she will release her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You (a perfectly depressing title). The story follows four young people, in — surprise, surprise — Dublin and a nearby town, "as they navigate the pressures of work and relationships against the backdrop of political turmoil and fears about their economic futures." According to The New York Times, we will get another complex relationship like the one Rooney captivated us with in Normal People, but this time, between characters who are a bit older than the college-aged Connell and Marianne.

In the book, a novelist named Alice, her best friend Eileen, and their respective love interests, Felix and Simon, as the foursome grapples with their purpose in life. Much of their dynamics will take place in conversations and email exchanges.

“The title itself speaks to some of the book’s themes, it’s an unanswered question,” publisher Mitzi Angel told the Times. “The characters are contemplating a world in which the future is very uncertain for them — what’s the world of work going to look like, what’s going to happen to the planet, what are the politics we are all living through. I think the stakes are higher.”

In the meantime, Rooney has another book that she wrote before Normal People — 2017's Conversations With Friends — for you to pick up if you haven't yet.