Intermezzo A Novel
Intermezzo A Novel by Sally Rooney, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on September 24, 2024, is a 464-page exploration of family dynamics and personal struggles. The narrative centers on two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, who, despite their shared lineage, lead vastly different lives. Following the death of their father, Peter, a successful lawyer in Dublin, grapples with his relationships and emotional turmoil, while Ivan, a socially awkward chess player, navigates his own grief and newfound connections.
Readers will find a poignant examination of grief, love, and the complexities of family life as the brothers confront their pasts and the people intertwined with their lives. The story delves into themes of psychological growth and coming of age, set against the backdrop of contemporary Ireland. As Peter and Ivan’s paths intersect with women from their lives, the narrative unfolds into a rich tapestry of desire and despair, offering insights into how individuals cope with loss and seek connection in the face of adversity.
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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A National Indie Bestseller
Short-listed for the An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year
Finalist for the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year
Named a Best Book of the Year and a Critics’ Pick by The New York Times
Named an Essential Read by The New Yorker
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time, Financial Times, Vogue, The Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, Vox, The Times (UK), Apple Books, and more
A USA Today, People, and Associated Press Top 10 Book of the Year
One of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2024
One of Chicago Public Library’s Favorite Books of the Year
An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.
Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.
Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.
For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
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