Sally Rooney Books in Order (Updated 2026-02-09)

Sally Rooney’s novels are not a series. Each one is a complete, separate story, so you won’t get “lost” if you read out of order. The reason people still ask for reading order is simpler: her books reward a first-time read where you don’t already know what emotional turns are coming.

She has four novels (2017–2024) and a smaller body of short fiction published in magazines and collections.

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A clean starting choice

• If you want the beginning of her career: start with Conversations with Friends.
• If you want the most widely read entry point: start with Normal People.
• If you want the newest novel: start with Intermezzo.

If you don’t like spoilers of any kind (even tiny ones), choose a title by vibe and go in blind.

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The novels in publication order

1. Conversations with Friends (2017): Two brilliant college friends pull a married couple into their orbit, and every boundary becomes negotiable.
2. Normal People (2018): A private connection between two young people keeps re-forming as class, pride, and timing interfere.
3. Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021): Four late-twentysomething lives intersect as friendship, desire, and politics press against everyday loneliness.
4. Intermezzo (2024): Two brothers grieve their father in different ways, and their relationships expose what each can’t admit out loud.

Best default: read these four in order to feel the shift in scale and structure from book to book.

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Short fiction and other pieces

These are optional. They do not create a required continuity with the novels.

• After Eleanor Left (2015, short story): A relationship’s ending leaves behind a stubborn, echoing sense of unfinished business.
• Concord 34 (2016, short story): Ordinary life tightens into discomfort as small choices expose larger power dynamics.
• At the Clinic (2016, short story): Two young adults share a mundane appointment day that quietly reveals how uneven intimacy can feel.
• Mr Salary (2016; later published as a standalone short work): A young woman returns to Dublin and circles a relationship that has never offered equal ground.
• Color and Light (2019, short story): A hotel worker becomes fixated on a visitor whose presence rearranges his sense of self.
• Unread Messages (2021, short story): A modern relationship is traced through what’s sent, what’s left unsaid, and what’s never answered.

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Recommended reading routes

If you want the simplest, most reliable path

Read the novels straight through: 2017 → 2018 → 2021 → 2024.

If you want “just one book” to decide if her style works for you

Pick Normal People (most representative) or Conversations with Friends (sharper, earlier voice), then decide from there.

If you’re curious about the short fiction

Read the novels first, then sample At the Clinic and Color and Light as quick, concentrated versions of her themes.

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Latest release status

• Most recent novel: Intermezzo (2024).
• As of this update (February 2026): no later novel title is reliably listed as officially announced in the standard publisher-style bibliographic sources I checked.

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FAQ

Do any of the novels connect to each other?
No shared storyline. Any similarities are thematic, not plot-based.

Is there a “chronological” order different from publication order?
Not for the novels, because they’re separate stories. Publication order is the only order that consistently adds value.

Where does At the Clinic fit?
It stands alone, but it’s closely associated with the world of Normal People and is best read after (or alongside) that novel if you want it to feel like an extra scene rather than an odd entry point.