Intermezzo

        一對兄弟在父親去世後，漸行漸遠…

       關於喪親之痛、家人的牽絆與愛情的轉化，莎莉．魯尼再次發揮才華，揉合成動人故事

       相差十歲的兄弟彼得和伊凡，看似沒有任何共通點。三十出頭的彼得發揮自己在大學的辯論才能，轉戰為都柏林首屈一指的律師，成功能幹，而且無懈可擊。另一邊，才剛從大學畢業的伊凡，是個天才棋手，但如今正面臨著世界排名下滑的危機，靠著自由接案分析數據，勉強維生。這年，父親因癌症去世，兄弟之間裂痕擴大。彼得開始靠藥物，才能入睡，而且忙於應付兩個女人：初戀前女友和自由奔放的大學生。喜歡獨來獨往，認為自己不像哥哥一樣油嘴滑舌的伊凡，則遇到了比自己年長，在藝術中心工作的瑪格麗特。兩兄弟在面臨巨大悲傷的絕望時刻，同時迎來全新的浪漫關係。

       對這對兄弟和他們所愛的女人們來說，這段期間是人生的間奏曲，充滿慾望、絕望和可能性。(文／博客來外文館)

　　An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

　　Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

　　Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

　　Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

　　For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist. She is the author of Beautiful World, Where Are You; Conversations with Friends; and Normal People. She also contributed to the writing and production of the Hulu/BBC television adaptation of Normal People.