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Intermezzo
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney Review: A Grief-Driven Novel of Brothers and Love
Intermezzo is the fourth novel by Irish author Sally Rooney, following brothers Peter and Ivan Koubek through Dublin and rural Ireland in the weeks after their father's death — each entangled in complicated relationships that test the limits of love, loyalty, and loss. It became the fastest-selling book in Ireland in 2024 and an instant New York Times bestseller, appearing on more than 20 year-end "Best Books" lists.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers of literary fiction who are drawn to emotionally interior explorations of grief, sibling dynamics, and the complexities of love across difference in age and circumstance — particularly those open to a more demanding, stylistically ambitious Rooney than her earlier novels offer.
Worth it if
Worth reading if you want a philosophically ambitious literary novel about how grief temporarily suspends the usual rules of living, and you're willing to engage with longer, more interior prose than Rooney's earlier work demanded.
Skip if
Skip it if you came to Rooney for her spare, dialogue-driven style and detached narration, or if you're likely to be put off by romantic power dynamics — financial entanglement and significant age gaps — that the novel presents without straightforward endorsement.
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews, which named it one of the best books of 2024, called it "a clear leap forward for Rooney" and affirmed that "her grandmaster status remains intact," while bookmarks.reviews synthesised critical opinion finding the novel "wise, resonant, and witty," with Dwight Garner declaring he admired it "almost without reservation." Not all critics capitulated: josephrauch.com noted that most reviews praised the book "endlessly" while arguing it had "significant flaws nearly every critic chose to ignore," and readswithalicia.substack.com raised concerns about its treatment of disability and unconventional relationships.
“Though not perfect, a clear leap forward for Rooney; her grandmaster status remains intact.”
— Kirkus ReviewsAsk LuvemBooks
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- Is it worth reading?
- For readers drawn to literary fiction about grief, sibling relationships, and love across difference, the critical consensus makes a strong case. The novel appeared on more than 20 'Best Books of 2024' lists — including picks from The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Time, and the Financial Times — and won the 2025 Sky Arts Award for literature. New York Times critic Dwight Garner declared he admired it 'almost without reservation,' and Mari Cohen of Jewish Currents called it 'Sally Rooney's best novel yet.' The key caveat: some critics found the tone precious and raised specific objections to its treatment of female characters, and its more interior, philosophically dense prose is a genuine stylistic shift from Rooney's earlier work.
- Similar books
- Readers who respond to Intermezzo's combination of grief, morally complicated relationships, and precise literary prose will find sympathetic company in several titles. Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth is a natural companion — a collection of stories built around loss, family rupture, and the emotional aftermath of absence, handled with similar emotional precision. Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! shares the novel's preoccupation with grief and meaning-making, following a young poet wrestling with death and identity. Sigrid Nunez's The Friend is another quiet, interior novel about grief and the surprising forms of connection it opens up. Coco Mellors' Cleopatra and Frankenstein, like Intermezzo, turns on a relationship complicated by age difference and the shifting power dynamics between its principals.
- Who should read this?
- Intermezzo is designed for adult readers drawn to literary fiction about grief, sibling relationships, and the complications of love across difference — in age, circumstance, and what each person can offer another. It will particularly reward fans of Rooney's earlier novels who want to see her range extend, and readers interested in philosophically ambitious fiction that takes the inner lives of its characters seriously. Readers who prefer Rooney's earlier spare, dialogue-driven style, or who want straightforward romantic narratives, may find this a more demanding proposition.
- About Sally Rooney
- Sally Rooney is an Irish author.
- What are the main themes?
- Grief is the novel's organising force — the death of the Koubek brothers' father is what suspends the normal rules of their lives and opens the space the title names. Love across difference runs through both storylines: Peter is caught between Sylvia and Naomi, relationships defined by chronic pain and financial dependency respectively, while Ivan's relationship with the older Margaret Kearns is shaped by the gap in their ages and circumstances. The novel is also philosophically engaged with questions of loyalty and what people owe one another — Martin Doyle of The Irish Times wrote that readers come for the romance but stay for 'the meaning of life, of which, of course, love is a fundamental part.'
- Has it won any awards?
- Intermezzo won the 2025 Sky Arts Award for literature and was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, as well as longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. It became the fastest-selling book in Ireland in 2024 and an instant New York Times bestseller, and appeared on more than 20 'Best Books of 2024' lists compiled by publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Time, the Financial Times, and The Guardian.
- How does it compare to her earlier novels?
- Intermezzo marks a deliberate and critically noted departure from Rooney's earlier work. Where Beautiful World, Where Are You and its predecessors relied on clean, dialogue-driven narratives with detached omniscient narration, Intermezzo employs varied narrative techniques and distinct interior voices for its principal characters — producing longer, more associative prose. It is also the first Rooney novel to centre on male protagonists and the dynamics between men, a pivot Rooney herself has connected to her reading of James Joyce's Ulysses. Multiple reviewers described it as more philosophically ambitious than her previous novels.
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What the Novel Is and What Happens
Significance and Place in Rooney's Body of Work
What It Does Well
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Who It Is For
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- 1
Sally Rooney, Wikipedia
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Open Library
Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Heat level
Steamy · on-page romantic and sexual scenes across multiple relationships
Tropes
From how readers and romance sites describe it, not our own reading.
3 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
Best for: Adults — philosophically dense prose and emotionally complex relationship dynamics suit mature readers
Skip if you're looking for Rooney's spare, dialogue-driven style — Intermezzo is a more demanding, interior read
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