Seated at a restaurant in Delhi, I abruptly stop scrolling Instagram when I read that Sally Rooney has a new book coming out in September. Published by Faber & Faber, Intermezzo is described as a story about “grief, love and family”, exploring the relationship between brothers Peter and Ivan, who have little in common, as they grapple with the death of their father. As a Sally Rooney fan, I am surprised at not having come across the book announcement earlier. I find myself just as surprised at how different Intermezzo’s summary sounds from the author’s previous books.
Since the release of Normal People in 2018, Rooney has—admittedly reductively—gained a reputation for depicting cool, sad, young girls as unassumingly pretty and detached in romantic relationships. Intermezzo strays from this archetype, choosing instead to display characters and relationships Rooney’s audience may not expect: older men struggling with familial bonds.
Reading up on the author’s departure from her usual themes, I realise that the cover of Intermezzo reflects this metamorphosis. While the book covers for her previous works are playful, bright and minimalist, there is a moodiness to the cover of Intermezzo, created by British-Indian designer Kishan Rajani. “A nugget of advice I’ve carried with me in my career is that the cover designer’s job is not to articulate the entire narrative of a story, but to capture the essence of the book,” Rajani shares. “It’s about tone of voice and how it makes you feel.”
Using a deep Yves Klein blue—representing the infinite and immaterial—the book cover portrays the silhouette of a man, back turned towards the reader, standing in the distance. Two pairs of walking legs frame him: all three dressed immaculately in black formals. “Whilst designing the cover, my intention was to give focus to complex relationships which Sally so brilliantly articulates in her novels,” Rajani explains. “I’ve illustrated brothers Peter and Ivan Koublec, and using forced perspective, provided a lens through which the audience might be able to consider their relationship, and how it may unfold in the novel.”
