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Intermezzo

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Intermezzo

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Éanna Hardwicke
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About this listen

THE GLOBAL #1 BESTSELLER

'Intermezzo is perfect ... Is there a better novelist at work right now?' Anthony Cummins, Observer

'Her most mature and moving book to date ... I read it in a state of rapture.' Johanna Thomas-Corr, Sunday Times

'If a perfect Sally Rooney novel exists, this might just be it . Her best novel yet.' Evening Standard

'Rooney has discovered her full literary prowess.' Jo Hamya, Independent

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.

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

©2024 Sally Rooney (P)2024 Faber & Faber Editors Select Family Life Literary Fiction Heartfelt

Editorial Review

Sally Rooney raises her game
We may not be getting bucket hats this time, but a new Sally Rooney novel is still an EVENT. And Intermezzo is much more than a must-have accessory, though you’ll see it everywhere this fall. If you’ve been pining for Sally’s liquid sentences and diamond insights, here they are, this time in a tale of two brothers: Peter, a dashing early-thirtysomething who “goes along the surface of life very smoothly” according to Ivan, younger by a decade, a neurodiverse chess prodigy a bit past his prime – both of them navigating romances while facing the recent death of their father. I’m inhaling the vivid scenes and blasé bombshells – “Plain, unappealing people are by no means exempt from the experience of strong passions,” muses Ivan, for one. This is also a first-time departure from Rooney’s signature narrator, Aoife McMahon. I will always love Aoife, but man, Éanna Hardwicke, who you know as Rob from TV’s Normal People, is the perfect voice for this novel: intelligent, charismatic and (yes!) demurely sexy as only Irish men know how. Well played, all around. — Kat J., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Intermezzo

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Profile Image for lauren

Absolutely beautiful and touching story

Amazing story. Some weird audio parts that I can only assume were re recordings but otherwise, perfection.

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beautiful characters and narration

It took me a while to start caring about the main characters, but I am so glad I stuck with it. I would definitely say this is as engaging as Conversations With Friends. I didn't want it to end. The characters are beautiful and flawed and I could relate to their inner thoughts about life. A great read!

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Profile Image for Robert Hitchins

Middle ground

Male boomer bottom line: Similar to Ms Rooney’s previous three, except half as long again. I don’t think it needed to be. The narration by Éanna Harwicke was excellent

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Profile Image for Gabriella Trifiletti

Moving story beautifully narrated

Sally Rooney’s characters are all human, flawed and make mistakes. But they try, and love, amd cry and laugh and hate, eventually see they might be wrong, and start again. Just like us. Gorgeous story and great narration. Highly recommend

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Profile Image for Noinam

Makes Me Want to Speak Only in Short Sentences

This is the second Sally Rooney book I have listened to - the other being Normal People. At first, I almost can’t bear the writing. The short sentences. The detail. The emotion.

But once you’ve committed: you’re in!

This was melancholic and uplifting. The main characters - Ivan, Peter and, to a degree, Margaret, are beutifully evoked and there’s no part of their mind or emotive state that isn’t thoroughly examined. Sometimes painfully so.

Anyway, it’s an honest and real reflection on grief, family and relationships. Worth the listen.

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Outstanding

This story felt honest and raw, like looking under the bandaid we put over all our innermost thoughts. Love, grief, hope, forgiveness, it’s all in there. Superb!

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Profile Image for Min Adlide

never disappoints

I have loved each of Sally Rooney's books more than the the last. Then have fallen in love with each, all over again, on subsequent re-listens.

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Grief is something we must endure if we are to love.

Just beautiful. Thoroughly enjoyed this deep dive into the complexities of what it means to be family and how to move through our grief. Narrator was excellent.

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Outstanding novel

This is the kind of book that changes your life perspective. Beautifully written and narrated. A story that remains with you for life. Sally Rooney is a literary master!

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Sally Rooney amazing again

I adored this book. The dialogue was gorgeous. The inner worlds of grieving brothers and their relationship with each other and others. Beautifully told. A masterpiece from an incredible author.

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