# Is "Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, 2024) is identified by: The Faber & Faber UK first is a hardcover in one-piece grey paper over boards with black spine lettering, issued in a jacket with raised lettering. Faber & Faber, London and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York both published on 24 September 2024 — simultaneous, with no documented priority.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The Faber & Faber UK first is a hardcover in one-piece grey paper over boards with black spine lettering, issued in a jacket with raised lettering
- Faber house practice — corroborated by both the ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) publisher guides — is a "First published in [year] by Faber & Faber Limited" statement on the copyright page with subsequent impressions noted; where a number row is present, the lowest number governs, so a line containing 1 marks the first printing
- Dealer descriptions of the Faber issue consistently confirm "first edition, first printing" by the full number line beginning with 1
- The Farrar, Straus and Giroux US issue (ISBN 9780374602635, 464 pp.) states "First American edition, 2024" with a full number line, consistent with the FSG practice recorded in both guides of stating "First published / First printing / First edition (Year)" on the copyright page
- Refer to jacket price only as priced jacket / price present at the flap; an unclipped flap is the desirable state
- Publisher imprint reads Faber & Faber
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Sally Rooney |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Year | 2024 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The Faber & Faber UK first is a hardcover in one-piece grey paper over boards with black spine lettering, issued in a jacket with raised… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The Faber & Faber UK first is a hardcover in one-piece grey paper over boards with black spine lettering, issued in a jacket with raised lettering. Faber house practice — corroborated by both the ILAB and Quill & Brush (qbbooks) publisher guides — is a "First published in [year] by Faber & Faber Limited" statement on the copyright page with subsequent impressions noted; where a number row is present, the lowest number governs, so a line containing 1 marks the first printing. Dealer descriptions of the Faber issue consistently confirm "first edition, first printing" by the full number line beginning with 1. The Farrar, Straus and Giroux US issue (ISBN 9780374602635, 464 pp.) states "First American edition, 2024" with a full number line, consistent with the FSG practice recorded in both guides of stating "First published / First printing / First edition (Year)" on the copyright page. Refer to jacket price only as priced jacket / price present at the flap; an unclipped flap is the desirable state.

## Is this the true first?
Faber & Faber, London and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York both published on 24 September 2024 — simultaneous, with no documented priority. Both are collected and both should be named. Faber is the author's home publisher and is the issue conventionally preferred as the first; the FSG issue is the American first and is correctly described as "first American edition," not as a reprint. Trap: Faber's own "International Edition" (ISBN 9780571365470) is a separate export issue, not the UK first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. The heavy trap on this title is bookseller-exclusive states issued at or near publication, all of which are first-thus or variant rather than the plain first: the Kenny's signed and numbered limitation of 1,000 copies (numbered to a limitation page); copies with sprayed or blackened edges; copies with chess-board endpapers; the state carrying the bonus short story "Colour and Light"; and publication-day event covers stamped or illustrated by commissioned artists. Signed copies occur both with a bound-in signature leaf and with a loosely tipped-in publisher's bookplate — distinguish the two. Later Faber impressions are identified by numbers removed from the number row.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Intermezzo* by Sally Rooney a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/intermezzo
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.