Intermezzo

“Ms. Rooney has achieved a neat trick: She is considered the trendiest of novelists, though she writes in a traditional comic form . . . Her characters are distinct individuals whose names and actions are easy to recall, even years after reading the books.”―B. D. McClay, Wall Street Journal

“The depths Rooney plumbs are idiosyncratically hers. In Intermezzo, Rooney brilliantly and hypnotically creates a universe parallel to the worlds she has created in three previous novels.”―Michael Pearson, New York Journal of Books

“On a construction level, it’s Sally Rooney at her finest and most controlled . . . To discount the recurrence of certain themes and characterizations across her novels as unoriginal is to overlook the profundity of this novel . . . Again and again, Rooney’s novels pose questions about what love is and how it shapes our lives . . . If Intermezzo is any indication, the author’s literary finesse grows with each new novel.”―Cait O’Neill, Chicago Review of Books

“Rooney zooms in on these brothers with prose that is precise and rhythmic, her long paragraphs transmitting the winding nature of their inner worlds, how thoughts repeat and morph and collide . . . It’s simple and yet complex; meticulous but alive; funny but deeply sad. It’s Sally Rooney’s best novel yet.”―Mari Cohen, Jewish Currents

“There are moments of real poignancy and the two men’s hurt and grief, close to the surface, is often painful to read . . . This feels like a more mature novel―and in my opinion, [Rooney’s] best yet. There’s more introspection here, more vulnerability from the characters, and this allows a greater connection . . . Tender and true.”―Joanne Finney, Good Housekeeping