Intermezzo

Intermezzo is a tender and finely drawn novel about two brothers navigating grief, desire, and the complexities of adulthood after the sudden death of their father. Peter, a successful human rights lawyer in Dublin, finds himself unmoored by loss, caught between a lingering connection with his ex and the allure of a new relationship. Ivan, his younger brother and a former chess prodigy, begins an unexpected romance with Margaret, a divorced woman fourteen years his senior, whose presence challenges his sense of self and purpose.

Structured through the distinct voices of Peter, Ivan, and Margaret, the novel moves between perspectives with clarity and emotional depth. Rooney captures the rhythms of thought and feeling with her signature intimacy and precision, inviting readers into the quiet chaos of familial bonds and personal reckoning.

Intermezzo explores how people drift together and apart in the wake of loss, how desire reveals hidden vulnerabilities, and how love, both romantic and familial, reshapes who we are. It is Rooney’s most contemplative and stylistically daring novel yet, a moving portrait of lives paused and reshaped in the space between.