Didn’t seem fair on the young lad. That suit at the funeral. With the braces on his teeth, the supreme discomfort of the adolescent.”

Thus begins Sally Rooney’s upcoming book Intermezzo.

A bunch of questions immediately come to mind. Whose funeral? Why the discomfort, and why not grief? And most importantly, what’s wrong with the suit? Why is the lad wearing it if it’s that uncomfortable in the first place?

Scheduled to hit the stands on September 24, Intermezzo, by what is known of it already, is another of those deeply profound explorations of human nature that Rooney is so renowned for. All three of the author’s previous books (Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018) and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) have made significant marks in contemporary literature when it comes to narratives of psychological young adult drama. Normal People was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2018 and won Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards the same year. The book skyrocketed to cult status thanks to the BBC’s 2020 drama miniseries, which had Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in the main leads.

Intermezzo, says Rooney’s publisher Alex Bowler, is a story of “brothers and lovers, of familial and romantic intimacies, of relationships that don’t quite fit the conventional structures [sic]”. As per available knowledge, the plot revolves around two brothers, Peter and Ivan, who share very few similarities. Peter, in his thirties, is a successful and seemingly invulnerable Dublin lawyer, who, following their father’s death, turns to medication to sleep and grapples with his relationships with two vastly different women. Ivan, a 22-year-old competitive chess player, is a stark contrast to his older brother, and believes himself to be a socially awkward loner. During their early days of mourning, Ivan encounters an older woman with a turbulent past, with whom his life becomes deeply intertwined. For these two grieving brothers and the people they care about, this period represents an interlude — a phase filled with desire, despair, and new possibilities; “a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking”.

When it comes to the stage, an intermezzo is a short piece of music or performance that plays out between two parts of a longer piece, such as an opera or a theatrical performance. The word comes from the Latin ‘intermediate’, or what lies between. On the other hand, in chess language, an intermezzo is an unexpected move that poses a severe threat and forces an immediate response. The name of the novel seems to draw inspiration from these dual meanings of the word, and is rather fitting, given the timeframe in which its events are set in and the fact that one of its central characters does play chess.

In trademark Rooney-style, Intermezzo is poised to explore the complexities of life’s transitions and challenges, blending the emotional depth of personal experiences with sudden instances that shape human relationships. It is hoped that Rooney, as with all her previous works, will create a world that will resonate deeply with readers; a world that is equal parts familiar and revealing.