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.

Sally Rooney ditches the style that made her ‘voice of a generation’ - 5/5 With her fourth novel, Rooney has discovered her full literary prowess – the reward is transcendent

She has been called ‘the voice of a generation’ – an adage she reportedly hates. Either way, Sally Rooney seems to have ditched her typical exploration of ennui-plagued love-lorn millennials for Intermezzo: A Novel,

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

With 'Intermezzo' comes the latest wave of envy and desire to replicate the star author’s sales. But she stands alone

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.

As influencers and celebrities vie for advance copies, buzzy books like Intermezzo are going viral long before publication. But what does it mean when a book becomes a status symbol?