The excitement for Sally Rooney's forthcoming novel, Intermezzo, has already reached a frenzied pitch. The young Irish author's ability to articulate the modern vagaries of friendships, sex, and class tension with panache has won her an eager fandom internationally. Her earlier novels, like Conversations with Friends and Beautiful World, Where Are You, won accolades from critics, as well as widespread word-of-mouth recommendations. Her second book, Normal People, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was successfully adapted into an Emmy-nominated Hulu original series, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.
Now, Intermezzo, to be published on September 24, promises to broaden the scope of her reputation with a story about grief, love, and family, a portrait of two brothers following the death of their father, as they experience a shared period of desire, despair, and possibility. Together with the women they love, they reside on the brink of discovering "how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking."