"[B]rilliant narration by the actor Éanna Hardwicke."—Financial Times

"Éanna Hardwicke's narration highlights the rich emotionality of Rooney's newest novel. Hardwicke's smooth voice shifts to capture every mood--becoming desperately angry, bitter, and frantic yet also achingly tender, patient, and loving--as he performs a story of two grieving brothers."—AudioFile (Earphones Award Winner)

This program is read by actor Éanna Hardwicke, known for his role in Hulu's Normal People.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Rooney's latest story after Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) weaves together the complexity of family, grief, and love. Peter and Ivan Koubek are brothers adrift in grief after their father's death. Older brother Peter is a Dublin lawyer who appears collected but struggles privately in his grief, relies on medication to sleep, and is caught between relationships with his first love Sylvia and carefree college student Naomi. Younger brother Ivan is a competitive chess player who tips toward reclusiveness until he becomes intertwined with the interesting and older Margaret. The brothers are caught in their grief by an emotional interlude scored by their strained relationship, their unsettled romantic situations, and what happens when the future feels too wide open. Narrator Hardwicke shifts thoughtfully between characters, capturing the complexity in each point of view. Hardwicke beautifully moves between brooding, desire, grief, and hope. The end result is an exquisite and moving performance. Rooney's star is on the rise and libraries should make her work accessible in all forms. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.