Unlike her first two novels, Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You won’t be making its way to the screen—at least for now.
The Irish literary phenomenon, whose fourth novel, Intermezzo, is set for publication Tuesday by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, told the New York Times that she has no interest in a television or film adaptation of her third book.
“So far I have decided not to accept any offers to option the rights for that book,” she said. “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while.”
Rooney’s sophomore novel, Normal People, catapulted her into literary fame when it was published in 2019 to glowing reviews. The novel was adapted into a television miniseries that aired on Hulu in the U.S., starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal, and Sarah Greene. The series garnered four Emmy nominations, including one for Rooney, who co-wrote the adaptation.
In 2022, Hulu aired a series based on Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends, starring Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, and Joe Alwyn. The series was less of a hit with critics than Normal People.
Rooney told the Times that she didn’t regret her smaller role in the Conversations With Friends series.
“The reason that I chose not to be so involved in the second adaptation was because I was working on what became my third novel,” she said. “I felt that world was not where I belonged. I felt like, OK, now I know that my books are where I belong, and that’s all that I want to be doing.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
