Intermezzo by Sally Rooney audiobook review – modern love and loss
Ivan and Peter Koubek are brothers grieving the death of their father from cancer. Ivan is a 22-year-old chess champion with a degree in theoretical physics and former “incel” tendencies, while Peter is a human rights lawyer in his 30s pining for his former girlfriend, Sylvia. Peter is also sleeping with Naomi, a student in her early 20s who sells nude pictures of herself online and who regularly taps him for cash.
Set in Dublin and rural west Ireland, this fourth novel from the Normal People author Sally Rooney draws on familiar themes of modern relationships, though here they are underpinned by grief. While Ivan tries to understand and process the loss of his father, Peter prefers to distract himself from his feelings with alcohol and prescription drugs.
The Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke narrates, making deft work of Rooney’s stylised prose and drawing a smart contrast between Peter’s unhappy conceitedness and Ivan’s youthful insecurities. (Credit to him, too, for not laughing during the overcooked sex scenes.)
That our sibling protagonists are polar opposites with 10 years between them is what gives the novel its tension; as Peter tells a friend one evening: “[Ivan] thinks I’m an arrogant prick, and I look down on him because I think he’s a fucking loser.” When Ivan tells his brother that he has fallen for Margaret, a 36-year-old arts centre employee, Peter is appalled by the age gap, despite his own dalliance with the much younger Naomi. After a furious row in a fancy restaurant, the brothers’ already strained relationship seems to rupture irrevocably.
• Available via Faber, 16hr 30min
Further listening
Frankie
Graham Norton, Coronet, 9hr 5min
The genial TV host’s latest novel finds octogenarian Frances employing a young carer who gets her to share her life story. Read by the author.
Dopamine Nation
Dr Anna Lembke, Headline, 6hr 11min
The psychiatrist and author reads her analysis of the brain and its relationship to high-reward activities such as shopping, social media scrolling, eating and gambling.
