Novel English Language

Conversations with Friends

Sally Rooney

2017 Faber and Faber

Just like early novels drew on letter-writing, it seems natural to me that contemporary novels would draw on emails and instant messaging, because those are the predominant forms of communicative text now. I’m interested in ‘email voice’ and the extent to which that’s replicable in a ‘literary voice.’ But ultimately I enjoyed incorporating texts and emails into the book – not so much as an experiment or a commentary, but because I like reading and writing emails and texts in my normal life too.

Sally Rooney

Conversations with Friends

Sally Rooney

2017 Faber and Faber

Just like early novels drew on letter-writing, it seems natural to me that contemporary novels would draw on emails and instant messaging, because those are the predominant forms of communicative text now. I’m interested in ‘email voice’ and the extent to which that’s replicable in a ‘literary voice.’ But ultimately I enjoyed incorporating texts and emails into the book – not so much as an experiment or a commentary, but because I like reading and writing emails and texts in my normal life too.

Sally Rooney

Description

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed and observant. A student in Dublin and an aspiring writer, at night she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are interviewed and then befriended by Melissa, a well-known journalist who is married to Nick, an actor, they enter a world of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence, beginning a complex ménage-à-quatre. But when Frances and Nick get unexpectedly closer, the sharply witty and emotion-averse Frances is forced to honestly confront her own vulnerabilities for the first time.

 
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