Sally Rooney’s fourth novel follows two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, in the aftermath of their father’s death.

Peter is a successful Dublin lawyer, outwardly composed but privately unravelling between grief, medication, old love and new desire. Ivan is younger, socially awkward, a competitive chess player, and unexpectedly drawn into an intense relationship with an older woman. 

It is very much Rooney territory, but roomier and more mournful than the earlier novels: less about the sharp glamour of youth and more about grief, inheritance, adult loneliness, uneven power, sex, family damage and the comedy of trying to be good while wanting things badly. 

Faber & Faber export edition, first published in 2024; this export edition also first published in 2024. Good second-hand condition, with light handling/shelfwear.