Intermezzo is Sally Rooney's 4th novel since she first exploded onto the scen in 2017 with Conversations With Friends. She has become the voice of her generation (she was born in 1991). Intermezzo is a little longer and more ambitious than her previous novels. It tells the story of two brothers in Dublin, one a lawyer in his 30s, and his younger brother, a chess prodigy in his 20s. They don't always get on, and in the wake of their father's death, everything changes as grief takes its toll in different ways. The novel switches between their perspectives, and the women they love. It's emotionally true, the familial and romantic relationships are extremely well observed and described. I think Sally Rooney is getting better, she's very much her own thing, and there are very few who can rival her precise and smooth writing.