Intermezzo

by Sally Rooney · 2024

Intermezzo is an exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family. Following the death of their father, brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek navigate their loss in vastly different ways. Peter, a successful but emotionally fraying Dublin lawyer, is caught between his lingering love for his former partner, Sylvia, and a volatile, uneven relationship with a younger student, Naomi. Meanwhile, Ivan, a younger and more inward chess player, finds an unexpected and meaningful connection with Margaret, an older woman, which challenges his sense of self. The novel explores intimacy with precision, examining how people manage desire, class, power, and the complex, often contradictory ways they care for one another while processing guilt, memory, and resentment.