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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 Best of 2024 Editors Select Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature Heartfelt Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking

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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Profile Image for Anonymous User

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 Kirsten Crombie

Good but long

I loved the emotional depth of the book and the internal psyches of the two brothers - classic Sally Rooney style. However, I felt it stretched on a bit too long.

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Intensely beautiful

Deeply moving and disturbing in equal parts. Superb narration brings characters and emotions to life with every word and nuance.

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Profile Image for chet

beautiful narration

I was apprehensive not having Aoife McMahon narrate, but Éanna Hardwicke's narration is perfect. His reading is so subtly heartbreaking.

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Profile Image for Lirit Bilu

Outstanding performance and writing

This intimate novel about a relationship of 2 brothers is so compelling with stream of consciousness writing and conversations. Brilliant !
This wouldn’t be easy to narrate but Eanna is brilliant too. Utterly moving, sad and beautiful!

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Profile Image for Amos

A writer that forces you to be empathetic

Sally has an extraordinary ability to tap into the universal feelings we all experience—self-doubt, self-reflection, our complex relationship with love, the tension between selfishness and the desire to do good, and the frustration of things spiraling out of control—emotions we often think are unique to ourselves. Though my life looks nothing like her characters’, I felt their experiences echoing my own, making the story deeply personal. She brings these moments to life with such beauty and clarity, allowing me to connect with the novel on a profound level. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it.

My only criticism is with the audiobook reader. They were mostly great, however, I felt that the voicing of the female characters, particularly Margret, could have used more direction. She often sounded uninterested or lacking enthusiasm, even in moments where the context suggested she was fully engaged.

Great book for me. I hope you enjoy as well.

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Profile Image for Teresa Ording-Jespersen

Beautiful

Beautifully written. Loved the narrator. Great characters. Very moving story. I really loved this book.

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Profile Image for Thomas

If you don’t get moved by this novel, you don’t have a heart.

To start, I have trouble working out the plot. Then I could not put it down, following the ins and outs of the story.

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Profile Image for rae murphy

Absolutely brilliant

A beautifully written story about love and grief and family and life. Absolutely loved it!

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