With 'Intermezzo' comes the latest wave of envy and desire to replicate the star author’s sales. But she stands alone

In recent years, Irish author Sally Rooney, 33, has been considered a wunderkind of the literary world, thanks to the breakout success of 2017’s Conversations with Friends, 2018’s Normal People and 2021’s Beautiful World, Where Are You.

The Irish writer's fourth novel is due to be released soon, so why not take our quiz to find out just how much you know about Sally Rooney and her work.

As influencers and celebrities vie for advance copies, buzzy books like ‘Intermezzo’ are going viral long before publication. But what does it mean when a book becomes a status symbol?

But novelists as talented as Ms Rooney aspire to do something new. They must negotiate the twin dangers of staleness and self-indulgent experiment. “Intermezzo” is the story of Ivan and Peter Koubek.