Description

*An Elle Summer Read 2023*
‘Cocozza’s writing is addictive… her sharp observations steal the show ‘ Joanna Cannon, Guardian
‘Searing, perceptive, shattering’ Observer
‘Charming, very touching and very funny. Taut and full of surprises’ Tessa Hadley

I shall explain about our marriage. We have a modern version of a long-distance relationship. We share a house, but live in different historical eras…

What happens in a relationship when your partner only has eyes for their new phone?

What happens when you lose a treasured possession – a hoard of love letters documenting a relationship that never really ended – and this loss becomes an obsession?

Speak to Me is the story of a woman’s quest, in a world ruled by screens and devices, for a conversation that will unlock who she once was, and what she really wants now. Keenly observed, tender and sharply funny, this is a book about all the ways we say, and don’t say, the things in our hearts.

Publisher Review

There are three of us in this - you, me and your mobile. How many couples have said this to each other? Paula Cocozza's witty, wry new novel is sharp as a skewer about the devices and desires in many modern marriages. I loved it -- Amanda Craig, author of THE GOLDEN RULE A beguiling and unsettling modern love story, full of wit, bafflement and razor-sharp swipes at modern desperation. She loves her past; he loves his phone, the centre cannot hold -- Louisa Young, author of A Year and a Day A meticulously composed novel about getting and paying attention. Paula Cocozza peels back the screens of modern life to explore different types of distance - from those we love and from ourselves, in a marriage and back to a lingering youthful relationship. Cool, compelling, Speak To Me is both timeless and vividly contemporary -- Richard Beard, Author of THE DAY THAT WENT MISSING With a brilliant, thwarted woman at its heart, SPEAK TO ME is a novel of longing like no other. Cocozza's command of this narrative voice is mesmerizing - I read it at a sitting, entranced -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of THE DOG OF THE NORTH Cocozza is a perceptive and intuitive writer who is unafraid to dwell in the life of the mind and, most crucially, the heart -- Sharlene Teo, author of PONTI A novel that manages to put its finger, exactly, tenderly, on a place of very modern pain. A contemporary, funny, anguished take on love and loneliness. -- Ross Raisin, author of GOD'S OWN COUNTRY