Intermezzo A Novel
Intermezzo A Novel by Sally Rooney, published by Picador on September 23, 2025, is a literary exploration of grief, love, and family dynamics. This edition spans 464 pages and is presented in English. The narrative follows two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, who, despite their familial ties, lead vastly different lives. As they navigate the aftermath of their father’s death, they confront their personal struggles and relationships, revealing the complexities of love and loss.
Readers will find a poignant depiction of the brothers’ contrasting experiences as Peter, a successful lawyer, grapples with his emotional turmoil and relationships with two women, while Ivan, a socially awkward chess player, forms a deep connection with an older woman named Margaret. The story delves into themes of desire, despair, and the potential for renewal amidst grief. Intermezzo invites readers to reflect on the intricate ties that bind family members and the profound impact of shared experiences during times of loss.
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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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