Sally Rooney's Beautiful World, Where Are You Will Not Get a Screen Adaptation: 'Not Where I Belonged'

Sally Rooney’s third novel will not follow suit Normal People and Conversations with friends.

In an interview with The New York Times published on September 21, the 33-year-old author stated that she has no plans to adapt Beautiful world, where are you? for the small screen.

“So far I have decided not to accept any offers to option the rights to that book,” she said. “I felt it was just time to take a break from it and let the book be on its own for a while.”

The book, which came out in 2021, tells the story of Alice and Eileen, two best friends in their thirties who find themselves on very different paths. As summer approaches, they exchange emails about art, friendship, the world around them, and the complicated love affairs unfolding in their lives.

Rooney also shared that she gained worldwide attention with the TV adaptation Normal People collected “a lot” and the experience led her to realize that she wanted to focus solely on the written word.

Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones in ‘Normal People’. Enda Bowe/Hulu With Intermezzo, Sally Rooney grew up: ‘I didn’t want to be a ‘young writer’

“The experience of working on the first one [Normal People] it was, in so many ways, amazing – the team of people involved in it. But it also felt like a really big deal,” she said. “Then, when the show aired, it felt like a lot, in terms of the amount of discourse it generated and the amount of media attention. I felt that this world was not where I belonged. I felt like, okay, now I know my books are where I belong and that’s all I want to do.”

Normal Peoplereleased on Hulu in April 2020, it became an instant hit during the COVID-19 pandemic and skyrocketed the careers of its stars Paul Mescal, nominated for an Oscar in 2023, and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

The series is adapted from Rooney’s 2018 Booker Prize nominee, which tells the story of the complicated romance that develops between two students, Marianne (Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Mescal), from high school to college.

Meanwhile, Conversations with friendsRooney’s debut novel, published in 2017, received its film adaptation in 2022, starring Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, Alison Oliver and Sasha Lane. Rooney said The New York Times that the reason she chose to “not be so involved” in the adaptation Conversations with friends because at that time she was working on her third novel.

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Sally Rooney.

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Listen Normal People Actress Éanna Hardwicke narrates Sally Rooney’s upcoming novel Intermezzo (Exclusive)

Rooney’s long-awaited fourth novel, Intermezzois set to be released on September 24 and focuses on two brothers, Peter and Ivan, as they grieve the death of their father while also finding themselves in very different romantic relationships.

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“I’m aware that people think my work is very autobiographical, but it’s not,” said the Irish star The New York Times novel. “It felt like they were just fictional characters, like all my other fictional characters, and they intrigued me. So the issue of gender seemed very secondary, but there were moments where I thought, ‘Am I doing any of this right understood?’ ‘”

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Source: HIS Education