Intermezzo Summary: Sally Rooney’s Poignant Novel of Family and Grief

What happens when grief fractures the bonds of family, yet somehow brings you closer? Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo masterfully explores this very question. Set in contemporary Ireland, the novel follows two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, who wrestle with the legacy of their late father and their vastly different paths in life.

This Intermezzo Summary will guide you through the layered emotional terrain of family relationships, identity, love, and loss in Rooney’s richly crafted narrative.

TL;DR Box

Two brothers, Peter and Ivan, cope differently with their father’s death.
Peter is a successful but emotionally troubled lawyer; Ivan is a socially awkward chess player.
The novel explores themes of family, grief, love, identity, and social dynamics.
Sally Rooney’s writing is tender, insightful, and emotionally precise.
Intermezzo is praised for its depth, maturity, and authentic portrayal of relationships.

5 Questions Intermezzo Answers

How does grief alter family dynamics and personal identity?
Can love exist alongside emotional turmoil and loss?
What does it mean to truly know and accept another person?
How do social roles and ambitions influence our relationships?
In what ways do unexpected connections lead to personal growth?

Intermezzo Summary & Review & Spoilers

“Doesn’t the feeling between people have a truth of its own?” This striking question encapsulates the emotional core of Intermezzo, a novel by Sally Rooney published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2024. At its heart, Intermezzo dives deep into the complexities of family dynamics and personal identity framed through the raw lens of grief and love. The story unfolds within the intimate world of two brothers who, despite sharing blood, live contrasting lives — one a successful Dublin lawyer navigating emotional turmoil, the other a socially awkward chess prodigy coming into his own.

Plot Summary

Non-Spoiler Overview

Intermezzo is structured in three parts, charting the emotional journeys of Peter and Ivan Koubek as they process their father’s death and their divergent lives. Peter, in his thirties, is a confident lawyer in Dublin, but underneath his poised exterior, he struggles with insomnia and existential confusion after losing his father. His complicated relationships with two women — Sylvia, his devoted partner, and Naomi, a spirited college student — further complicate his emotional state.

Ivan, twenty-two, is an introverted, competitive chess player who has long felt overshadowed by Peter. His story takes a surprising turn when he forms an unexpected bond with Margaret, an elderly woman with a complicated past. This connection becomes a catalyst for Ivan’s personal growth, forcing him to reconsider his identity and place in the world.

Spoiler Section

The novel’s emotional depth unfolds as the brothers’ paths intersect and diverge, revealing the tensions and connections that define their relationship. Peter’s internal battles culminate in a reckoning with his feelings of loss and responsibility, while Ivan’s interactions with Margaret open him to a new perspective on life and love. Rooney’s narrative does not offer neat resolutions; instead, it embraces the ambiguity of human experience, highlighting how grief reshapes relationships and self-understanding.

Main Characters

Peter Koubek: The older brother, a lawyer grappling with the death of his father and his conflicting desires for control and emotional connection. His arc centers on confronting vulnerability while navigating complex romantic relationships.
Ivan Koubek: The younger brother, a socially awkward chess prodigy who struggles with feelings of inadequacy and invisibility. Ivan’s journey is one of self-discovery through unexpected companionship.
Sylvia: Peter’s committed partner, representing stability and love but also the pressures of emotional expectation.
Naomi: A carefree college student whose humor and detachment challenge Peter’s worldview.
Margaret: An elderly woman whose mysterious past and bond with Ivan highlight themes of memory, aging, and connection.

Themes & Analysis

Intermezzo explores multiple rich themes:

Family and Grief: The novel intricately portrays how grief fractures and reshapes familial bonds, revealing hidden tensions and unspoken needs.
Identity and Self-Discovery: Both brothers face internal struggles—Peter with his emotional repression, Ivan with his social insecurities—reflecting broader questions of who we are beyond family roles.
Romance and Relationships: Rooney’s exploration of romantic entanglements is tender yet realistic, highlighting the messiness of love, desire, and emotional dependency.
LGBTQ+ Representation: The novel subtly weaves queer identities and relationships into its fabric, enhancing its authenticity and inclusivity.
Social Class and Ambition: Through Peter’s manipulation of social systems and Ivan’s outsider status, Rooney critiques societal structures and personal ambitions.

Reader Reviews

“Intermezzo is exquisite… tender and lovely, with waters that go deep beneath the prose.” —Constance Grady, Vox
“A bold, adventurous, and captivating novel that surprises and engages.” —Michael Cronin, The Irish Times
“Wise, resonant, and witty… Rooney has an exquisite perceptiveness.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Rooney leans fully into her gifts here: more characters, more complication, more life.” —Anthony Cummins, The Observer
“Her most mature and moving book to date… inwardness that catches characters realizing important truths.” —Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times

Intermezzo A Novel by Sally Rooney Quotes

He doesn’t want after all for others to be poor, doesn’t even want to be rich. No. He only wants what he has always wanted: to be right, to be once and for all proven right.
For Peter, social systems are never confusing, always transparent, and usually manipulable to his own ends. He is someone who not only knows a vast number of people, but through knowing them can somehow make them do things he wants them to do.
Peter naturally unable to be thirsty on main, he has a career to think about.
It doesn’t always work, but I do my best. See what happens. Go on in any case living.
Yes I would like he thinks to live in such a way that I could vanish into thin air at any time without affecting anyone and in fact I feel that for me this would constitute the perfect and perhaps the only acceptable life. At the same time I want desperately to be loved.
what if life is just a collection of essentially unrelated experiences? Why does one thing have to follow meaningfully from another?
Yes, the world makes room for goodness and decency, he thinks: and the task of life is to show goodness to others, not to complain about their failings.
Sometimes you need people to be perfect and they can’t be and you hate them forever for not being even though it isn’t their fault and it’s not yours either. You just needed something they didn’t have in them to give you.
Yes, the world makes room for goodness and decency, he thinks: and the task of life is to show goodness to others, not to complain about their failings.

About the Author: Sally Rooney

Intermezzo Summary — Author’s image source: Britannica.com

Sally Rooney, born in 1991 in western Ireland, is a prominent author known for her sharp, insightful writing. Her work has been featured in prestigious publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, and The London Review of Books. In 2017, she won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, which recognized her emerging talent in contemporary literature. Rooney is the acclaimed author of Conversations with Friends and also serves as the editor for the Irish literary journal The Stinging Fly.

Conclusion

Intermezzo is a powerful, intimate novel that offers a profound meditation on grief, family, and the complexities of human connection. Sally Rooney’s nuanced writing invites readers to confront the messy realities of love and loss while illuminating the delicate threads that bind us. Whether you seek a literary exploration of family or a tender story of personal transformation, Intermezzo delivers with grace and insight. Dive into this emotional journey and discover why Intermezzo has captured hearts worldwide.

Ready to experience this masterful novel? Grab your copy of Intermezzo and join the conversation about what it truly means to live, love, and grieve.