QUESTIONS OF LIFE

Shortly before Sally Rooney’s first novel was published, I had a downbeat conversation with a UK literary agent. It was all over with the novel, she said. It was difficult to sell serious fiction; where was there to go after Knausgård? Perhaps the only way forward was creative non-fiction. “Ever thought about writing fantasy?” she asked.

There was one upcoming novel, though, the agent noted, that people were talking about: , by Sally Rooney, a