Intermezzo A Novel

A New York Times Bestseller and National Bestseller that earned a spot on Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2024, this exquisitely moving novel from global literary phenomenon Sally Rooney explores the intricate dance between grief and love with her signature psychological precision.

In the wake of their father’s death, brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek find themselves navigating unfamiliar emotional territory. Peter, a successful Dublin lawyer in his thirties, appears to have everything under control—until sleepless nights and complicated relationships with two very different women reveal the cracks beneath his polished surface. His younger brother Ivan, a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player who has always felt like an outsider, unexpectedly finds connection with Margaret, a woman emerging from her own turbulent past.

This is Rooney at her most compassionate and insightful, examining how two grieving brothers—and the people who love them—navigate desire, despair, and the surprising possibilities that emerge in the spaces between loss and healing. Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Vogue, and The Guardian, among others, Intermezzo asks a profound question: how much can one life hold inside itself without breaking?

Short-listed for the An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and finalist for the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year, this is essential reading for anyone captivated by the complexities of family, the weight of grief, and the redemptive power of human connection.

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