The new novel by Sally Rooney is set in Dublin after the COVID-19 pandemic. Peter Koubek, 32, is a commanding, eloquent, and highly competitive barrister. As the eldest son, he insists on giving the eulogy for his father, who has died of cancer as the story begins. Peter is very successful but troubled by his relationships with women. His much younger brother Ivan, 22, attends the funeral in a shabby second-hand suit, with braces on his teeth and a wild black mane making him appear ghastly. Their mother, Christine, divorced their father when Ivan was 5, and Ivan was much closer to his Slovakian immigrant father. Ivan resents his older brother’s domineering nature and is disheartened by his chess ranking: despite dedicating himself to chess competitions since 16, he hasn’t advanced much, and during his father’s illness, his performance declined.
Peter describes Ivan as ‘borderline autistic’ – not diagnosed, but socially and empathetically challenged. Christine, their mother, has remarried a prosperous businessman and inherited her husband’s old house in Kildare. She also has her ex-husband’s whippet, which she doesn’t want to keep.
Peter is very successful, especially in court, but his personal life is chaotic. He’s been seeing a much younger woman, Naomi, for the past eight months. Naomi is a university student with no money who squats in an abandoned house, occasionally using OnlyFans for extra cash, and allows Peter to pay some of her bills. She’s very intelligent, socially aware, and doesn’t expect much from Peter, who has shown no signs of committing. Peter’s heart is bound to his longtime love, Sylvia, his soulmate. She is his age, a university lecturer, and they see each other regularly. Their relationship is intimate but nonsexual: years ago, Sylvia was in a devastating car accident and is in near-constant pain, unable to endure penetrative sex. Sylvia broke up with him years ago, insisting he see other women. But they remain best friends and confidantes, and as Ivan says, ‘she is like family.’ Peter has had a strained relationship with Ivan since Sylvia’s accident, as Ivan emotionally withdrew during Peter’s distress over Sylvia, which deeply hurt Peter, who had always protected his younger brother.
