Irish author Sally Rooney’s latest book “Intermezzo” is available from today, Tuesday, September 24.
Rooney’s fourth novel, "Intermezzo" has a lot to live up to after the massive success of “Conversations with Friends” (2017), “Normal People” (2018), and “Beautiful World, Where Are You” (2021).
While the novels were popular in their own right, television adaptations of “Normal People” and later “Conversations with Friends” helped bring Co Mayo native Rooney’s stories to an even wider audience.
“Normal People” was released on Hulu, BBC Three, and RTÉ One in April 2020, the height of the pandemic. The mini-series that launched stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones into a new stratosphere won a slew of awards and landed three Primetime Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.
The 12-episode series became BBC‘s most-streamed series of 2020, racking up more than 62.7M views.
However, the 2022 adaptation of “Conversations with Friends,” which Rooney says she was not as involved with, has been widely regarded as not as strong as “Normal People.”
During a recent New York Times interview ahead of the release of "Intermezzo," Rooney was asked if she wished she had been more involved with the “Conversations with Friends” adaptation.
“No, I don’t,” she replied.
“The reason that I chose not to be so involved in the second adaptation was because I was working on what became my third novel ['Beautiful World, Where Are You'].
“The experience of working on the first one had been, in so many ways, amazing — the team of people involved in it. But it did also feel like a really big job.
“Then, when the show was broadcast, that felt like a lot in terms of the amount of discourse that it generated and the amount of media attention. I felt that world was not where I belonged. I felt like, OK, now I know that my books are where I belong, and that’s all that I want to be doing.”
Is a new adaptation in the works for her latest novel “Intermezzo”?
“No,” Rooney told the New York Times.
“So far I have decided not to accept any offers to option the rights for that book.”
She added: “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while.”
"Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney. (Faber)
While there is no adaptation in the works - at least not yet, anyway - "Intermezzo" is enjoying strong positive reviews upon its highly anticipated release.
"'Intermezzo' wears its heart on its sleeve," Dwight Garner writes in a New York Times review. "It’s a mature, sophisticated weeper. It makes a lot of feelings begin to slide around in you."
Heller McAlpin, writing for NPR, says "Intermezzo" is Rooney's "most fully developed and moving" novel yet.
"'Intermezzo' is perfect – truly wonderful – a tender, funny page-turner about the derangements of grief, and Rooney’s richest treatment yet of messy romantic entanglements," Anthony Cummins writes in The Guardian.
Michael Cronin of The Irish Times says: "This bold, adventurous and captivating novel is a major addition to a body of work that never fails to surprise and engage.”
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