In recent years, Irish author Sally Rooney, 33, has been considered a wunderkind of the literary world, thanks to the breakout success of 2017’s Conversations with Friends, 2018’s Normal People and 2021’s Beautiful World, Where Are You.

The Irish writer’s keenly intelligent new novel swaps her formidable female leads for two brothers summoned together by grief

Through alternating narratives of two brothers, the novel shows what happens when we do not know what to do with our grief.

Sally Rooney’s new novel is entitled Intermezzo — the old chess term for an unexpected move. The board game is a significant element in the plot — Ivan, one of the main protagonists, is a chess master.

Intermezzo is not a flawless novel. Naomi is not as well fleshed out as the other characters; there a slightly jarring habit of front-loading sentences with adverbs (“mindlessly she nods her head”; “distractedly she pushes her hair back”); and at times Peter’s sections are so staccato that they require intense focus just to be able to follow them.

The propulsive energy of Sally Rooney’s latest novel is derived not from its plot, but from the meticulous self-questioning of the characters, writes Stuart Kelly

But novelists as talented as Ms Rooney aspire to do something new. They must negotiate the twin dangers of staleness and self-indulgent experiment. “Intermezzo” is the story of Ivan and Peter Koubek.

Irish author Sally Rooney, hailed as the "voice of a generation" after the runaway success of "Normal People", examines modern love in all its glory and friction in her fourth novel "Intermezzo" released next week.