Lenny Abrahamson to Direct Sally Rooney's Normal People for BBC3

Oscar Best Director nominee Lenny Abrahamson (What Richard Did, Frank, Room, the upcoming The Little Stranger) is set to shoot a TV series, based on Normal People - Irish writer Sally Rooney's novel, which was recently long-listed for the Booker Prize.

The novel, yet to be published by Faber & Faber (it is due very soon), is a love story in which we follow Marianne and Connell – both from a small town in the west of Ireland, but from very different backgrounds – as they embark on an on-off romance that starts at school and continues through college. The friends they test their relationship, experiment with other partners and explore different versions of themselves.

It is striking, but also appropriate that Sally Rooney will adapt the novel herself, as she proved a master of dialogue in her debut novel Conversations With Friends – and similar plaudits are being heaped on Normal People. Element Pictures (Room, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster) will produce.

“I feel very privileged to be working with such an extraordinary team on the adaptation of Normal People. I’m looking forward to the challenge of working in a new form, and of thinking about these characters and their lives in new ways,” said Sally Rooney in a statement.

Meanwhile, Abrahamson was also hugely excited about the project. "Sally is a writer of the highest calibre," he said, "and in Normal People she captures the ebb and flow of intimacy and desire with extraordinary skill. I’m proud to be part of bringing her work to the screen audience it deserves.”

Casting and filming dates are yet to be confirmed.

Normal People will be published by Faber & Faber in September 2018. Meanwhile, Abrahamson's latest - the gothic horror The Little Stranger will hit the screens on September 21.