What Sally Rooney says about her upcoming book “Intermezzo”

Sally Rooney, the Irish author of Conversations with Friends and Normal People, has a brand new novel out this September. Intermezzo offers a deeper look into the relationships between two brothers and the romantic relationships they form.

In an article with the New Yorker published Monday, Rooney discussed her decision to write about brothers and detailed how she came up with the characters in her new novel. In the interview with the magazine, she talked about “Opening Theory,” a short story from “Intermezzo” and the highly anticipated new novel.

“It’s very much about the sibling dynamic”

While “Opening Theory” details how one character, Ivan Koubek, meets another character, Margaret, “Intermezzo” offers a deeper look into the relationship between Ivan and his brother Peter.

Rooney said the decision to focus on fraternity was not intentional. “All I can say is that I must have been interested in writing about fraternity, since I seem to have spent several years doing so, but I can’t explain why,” she said.

She said she initially started writing about Ivan before hitting a block. “I suddenly realized that Ivan had a brother – and in that moment of realization, I felt like I saw the brother’s entire personality and these other important relationships in his life,” Rooney said.

She said the book was ultimately about both the brothers and their partners. “It became a book that was very much about the sibling dynamics and the various love affairs.”

Age difference plays a role in “rationalizing their family dynamics”

Rooney also shared that age plays a role in understanding the characters in her new novel.

“The age difference between them is never really explained – Peter is ten years older and has no siblings,” she said.

Rooney said the brothers’ ages affect how they perceive each other. “In some ways, Ivan sees Peter as the epitome of adulthood, and Peter sees Ivan as a little boy,” she said. “The more time I spent with both of them, the more sympathy I felt for each of them, for their own ways of describing and rationalizing their family dynamics.”