By Sally Rooney
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a charismatic, thirty-something Dublin lawyer who relies on medication to manage his anxiety and is caught between two women. Ivan is a socially awkward, twenty-two-year-old competitive chess prodigy who feels fundamentally out of sync with the modern world. Following the death of their father, both brothers enter a period of profound emotional disarray—an intermezzo of desire, despair, and the possibility of finding meaning in an unscripted life.
Two grieving brothers, competitive chess, and the fragile geometry of human connection.
Literary fiction
2024
★★★★★
4.7/5 across 1 review
Rooney moves beyond youthful romance into the deeper, more fractured territory of adult brotherhood and grief. Her most mature and emotionally resonant novel to date.
Intermezzo stands out in the Literary fiction canon for its distinctive narrative voice and atmospheric pacing. Readers who connect with Sally Rooney's work often celebrate the delicate balance between external stakes and deep internal character conflict.
Sally Rooney is an internationally acclaimed Irish novelist and screenwriter. Described as the defining voice of millennial literature, her novels *Conversations with Friends*, *Normal People*, *Beautiful World, Where Are You*, and *Intermezzo* explore the intricate dynamics of intimacy, power, class, and grief with razor-sharp emotional precision.