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Sally Rooney's Normal People named Waterstones book of the year

Bookseller praises word-of-mouth hit as ‘cementing her reputation as the voice of her generation’

In a win for literary fiction amid declining sales, Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People has been named Waterstones book of the year.

Rooney’s second novel, which follows two young people falling in love in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, has sold just under 41,000 copies in hardback in the UK since it was released in August – five times the hardback sales of her 2017 debut, Conversations With Friends. At 27, Rooney is the now the youngest winner of the award, which goes to the title staff at the UK’s biggest bookshop chain most enjoy recommending.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2zvkV6w

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