Speak to Me

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.

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
Sparky... wonderfully tart... sharp throughout... audaciously framed and sincerely human Daily Telegraph
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
A powerful story of love, desire and identity. And the silent but significant impact technology has on these most human emotions Mary Portas
Highly original Elle Magazine (Summer Reading Pick, July 2023)
Cocozza's writing is addictive and she weaves an unexpectedly moving story, but it's her sharp observations that really steal the show... our heroine wouldn't look out of place in an Alan Bennett monologue... Speak To Me is a confessional story of our time, a painfully accurate portrayal of a relationship in crisis. Beneath the humour, though, there is a powerful message and a surprising poignancy -- Joanna Cannon Guardian

Paula Cocozza is a Guardian features writer who has written for a wide range of publications from the TLS to Vogue. She is the author of a previous novel, HOW TO BE HUMAN, which was published by Hutchinson in 2018 and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize.

The spiky wit of DEPT. OF SPECULATION and the ache and romance of BRIEF ENCOUNTER collide brilliantly in SPEAK TO ME: the story of a woman who feels she is losing her husband to his mobile phone - and that she might be falling out of love with modern life. When Kurt's phone rings during sex - and he reaches to pick it up - Susan knows that their marriage has passed the point of no return. Since they swapped their family home for an 'executive' newbuild on an estate still under construction, she has felt ever more aware that there is something missing in her life: the absence of any kind of meaningful communication with Kurt, who only has Facetime for Wendy (the nickname she has given to the ubiquitous phone), or her twin boys, with whom she communicates via notes left on the middle shelf of the fridge.This sense of loss becomes increasingly focused on a cache of handwritten letters, from her first love, Antony, mementoes of a time when devotion seemed to spill out easily onto paper. Increasingly desperate and out of synch with the contemporary world, Susan embarks on a journey of discovery that will reconnect her to her younger self, while simultaneously revealing her future.

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