[4] A critically acclaimed and Emmy nominated television adaptation of the same name aired from April 2020 on BBC Three and Hulu.

The novel follows the complex friendship and relationship between two teenagers from different social classes, Connell and Marianne, who both attend the same secondary school in County Sligo, Ireland, and, later, Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

[5] Connell is a popular, handsome, and highly intelligent secondary school student from a poor home who begins a very intimate erotic relationship with the unpopular, intimidating, equally intelligent, and wealthy Marianne, whose mother employs Connell's mother as a housecleaner.

Connell is very insecure and shy about the relationship, so he keeps the affair a secret from school friends, but ends up attending Trinity with Marianne after the summer and reconciling with her.

Well-off Marianne blossoms at university, becoming pretty and popular, while Connell struggles for the first time in his life to fit in properly with his peers.

[16] Entertainment Weekly writers ranked the book the 10th-best of the decade, with Seija Rankin writing, "Both of Sally Rooney's novels capture the millennial ethos with raw honesty and impeccable insight.

"[17] In The New York Times, Dwight Garner wrote, "Sally Rooney's sentences are droll, nimble and matter-of-fact.

[30] Marianne easily fits in with her upper-class classmates who come from similar backgrounds, some of whom look down on Connell for his lower socioeconomic status.

When Marianne starts to date Jamie in their second year at university, Connell feels out of place in her world because of his lack of wealth.