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Intermezzo

The global #1 bestseller from the author of Normal People

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Intermezzo

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Éanna Hardwicke
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THE GLOBAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD

'I read it in a state of rapture.' SUNDAY TIMES
'A tender, funny page-turner.' OBSERVER
'Come for the romance, stay for the meaning of life.' IRISH TIMES
'A breathtakingly intimate look at love and desire in its many different forms.' RED

From the author of the multimillion-copy bestseller Normal People, an exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family.

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.

Readers love Intermezzo:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'An intimate and emotional read . I put the book down feeling that I am richer for having read it.' Megan

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A beautifully written book with characters that capture the heart of the reader.' Sinead

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I'm envious of anyone yet to read this, you're in for a treat.' Anon

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'The characters are brilliant; complex, heartful, raw and impactful.' S. Payne

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Shows dazzling skill but also heart-wrenching compassion and humanity.' Tom

Sally Rooney's book Intermezzo was a bestseller w/c 30/09/2024

©2024 Sally Rooney (P)2024 Faber & Faber
Family Life Genre Fiction World Literature
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This was my first Sally Rooney’s novel and I loved it. It has a slow cozy pace. I loved the relationship between Ivan and Peter and the theme of grief.
Shout out to the actor, who did an amazing job in bringing those characters to life!

Beautiful book and voice actor!

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A thoroughly enjoyable read. Purposefully slow and detailed as it explores the complex dynamics of relationships. Stylistically, a curious blend of Joycean monotone with the claustrophobic theatrics of Beckett, brought masterfully up to date for today’s society by Rooney.

Slow but powerful

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Zero engagement with any of the characters, weak narratives all around and generally quite a tedious, dull book.

Over wrought, overthought and unfinishable

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I had a very hard time just getting through chapter 1. I didn’t like the writing style, being in the thoughts of the characters non stop. And I didn’t like the fact that nothing really happens throughout the whole book. I didn’t have anything to look forward to discovering and overall thought it was quite a boring book.

Boring book, nothing happens

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