The books Sally Rooney read while writing Intermezzo

For me, this book is one of the greatest triumphs of the novel form. The plot concerns the death of a family patriarch, the turmoil of an eldest son torn between his love for two different women, and the difficulties of an intellectually gifted younger brother named Ivan. But I thought enough time had passed that these issues warranted further consideration.

In my experience, many philosophy books are difficult to read. Philosophical investigationson the other hand, is easy to read but difficult to understand. In fact, it has all the qualities of a great novel: charismatic prose style, stunning psychological insights and brilliant fictional dialogue. For some unknown reason, the English text seems to be out of print – but I hope that if I talk about it enough, someone will decide to publish a new edition.

Another famous story about a son struggling with the loss of his father. About halfway through writing intermezzoI read it again Hamlet, and found it completely captivating and unexpectedly strange – full of strange, incidental things that didn't seem to make any sense. TS Eliot described hamlet as “enigmatic,” “disturbing,” and “certainly an artistic failure.” I agree with him on the first two points, but not on the third.

My way back to hamlet came through James Joyce Ulyssesin which the work of Shakespeare plays a major role. I've written about my love for elsewhere Ulysseswhich, in my opinion, is one of the best novels in the English language and is largely (honestly!) a pure pleasure to read. I am indebted to him in more ways than I can mention here. I'm just saying that – like all my favorite books, and I think more than any other by Joyce –Ulysses is really very funny.

Another novel haunted by hamlet is Isabella Hammads Enter Ghostwhich is about a theater troupe rehearsing for an Arabic-language production of the play in the occupied West Bank. In her non-fiction works, Hammad writes beautifully and with great moral clarity about Palestine; She is also a talented novelist Enter Ghost is a moving and unforgettable book.

One of the protagonists of intermezzo is a competitive chess player whose obsession with the game has defined much of his life. Chetna Maroos Western Lane offers another portrait of a young person passionately fixated on a competitive hobby: an adolescent girl who becomes obsessed with squash after her mother's death. I really loved this book and felt like I learned a lot from it.

While writing Intermezzo, I have often thought about our growth-dependent economic system and the resource-intensive lifestyles it demands of us. As the climate crisis escalates, why are we so determined to produce more and more of what we don't need? What other ways of organizing our societies are possible? Kõhei Saitō offers an accessible and compelling treatment of these questions in Slowwhich was a bestseller in Japan in 2020 under its original title Capital in the Anthropocene.

I read first Cheri ten or fifteen years ago and was overwhelmed by the sheer sensual beauty of the novel. The story of a love affair between an older woman and a younger man is based on a luxurious physicality and is rich in detailed descriptions of clothing, furniture and meals. When I read it again this year, I found it just as gorgeous as ever – but also much darker and more melancholic than I remembered.