Hitchin Book Club invites you to join us for some light hearted discussion. This event is a great introduction to the book club (especially if you have never been to a book club before). We always welcome new members of any level of reading experience.
Book Name: Normal People
Book Author: Sally Rooney
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Published: 2018
Word Count: 73k
Read Time Estimate: 4h52m
Date: Wednesday 24th September 2025
Start Time: 19:30pm
End Time: approx 21:30pm
Location: The Albert Inn, 50 Walsworth Rd, Hitchin SG4 9SU - sitting at one of the tables inside. Any updates to location I will post in comments on the day.
Structure:
- Brief introduction and what you thought about the book
- Discussions based on a set of pre-prepared questions as prompts
- 5 to 10 minute break half-way through, option to join whatsapp group
- Opportunity to ask any questions to the group
- Closing thoughts and provide a rating for book out of 10
- Vote for the next book (you may nominate a book for the next event)
- Book club formally ends - feel free to leave or stick around for general conversations
About book (from Goodreads):
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.
