Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

 

It's been a hard year for the Koubek family.  The father died after a years long battle with cancer.  The mother had left the family years before and now lives away with a new husband and stepchildren.  The Koubek brothers are grown but they can't count on each other for support.

Born more than a decade apart, they have little contact with each other.  When the younger, Ivan, was small, he idolized his big brother Peter.  But as Ivan grew, the brothers came to realize that they had little in common and in fact, didn't really like each other very much.  These days they rarely talk and when they do, often fight.

Peter has weathered other disastrous times.  The love of his life is Sylvia and he always thought they would marry and make a family.  But Sylvia was in a horrific accident several years back and will never be that healthy again; her life a daily round of pain that has left her unable to do many of the things she could before.  She broke up with Peter after that but they remain in contact and are 'good friends'.  In the meantime, if Peter can't have her, he starts and ends relationships with girls in their twenties.  The latest is Naomi and Peter can't quite shake her off as he has the others.  This leaves him in love with two women.

Ivan's life has been focused on chess.  He is a star in that world but at twenty-two, he has just left university and has no idea what to do for a job or a life or a relationship.  While visiting a small town for a chess exhibition, he meets a woman fourteen years older than him and starts a love affair.  She is hesitant and Ivan's family doesn't approve but he can't give her up or she him.

I've read all of Sally Rooney's novels.  This one is my favorite by far.  After reading the others, the characters always seemed distant and uninvolved in their own lives.  These brothers and the women they love are strong characters and I wanted to know what would happen next to them and would they ever find their way back to each other.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.