Speak to Me

Speak to Me

Her eyes move across the wall of pictures, and drop to the photograph on her desk. Husband, son and daughter, picture perfect, and though they were happy days, even then it seemed to capture something more than she could lay claim to; even then she had her doubts; this is not my beautiful life...

Five years ago life saving surgery left Michael Byrnes blind. Still coming to terms with his new life, Michael and his family have settled into a pattern on dysfunction.

His wife Elizabeth has become the sole bread-winner and is struggling to be everything everyone- career lawyer, supportive wife, and mother of two demanding, cofounding teenagers; Charlotte, the girl who makes everyone laugh and the introverted and impressionable Daniel.

In her circle of friends Charlotte is the critic- the smart one. But she is troubled. She blames her mother for all the family problems and resents her intrusion into her life. Her mother knows nothing about her, about what is really happening.

When one of Daniel's teachers introduces him to Christianity, he is suddenly swept up in the philosophical musings of religion and the existence of God. Consumed with the knowledge that his family and friends could we been damned, Daniel is obsessed with the need to convert them.

Over the course of six days, a series of dramatic events, beginning with a violent mugging, bring the Byrnes family to the brink. While Michael and his wife Elizabeth struggle to remember what it was that held them together, their teenage children seem determined to tear their world apart.

Speak to Me is an intelligent and compelling novel about contemporary life- changing roles, family versus career, and above all it's about the fragile connection between parents and teenagers- and what happens when everyone stops talking to one another.

Sarah Hopkins' first novel, The Crimes of Billy Fish, was highly commended in the inaugural ABC Fiction Awards and short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Sarah works as a criminal lawyer and has been actively involved in civil liberties and legal advocacy roles. Sarah will launch Speak to Me at the Sydney Writers' Festival.

Speak to Me
Penguin Australia
Author: Sarah Hopkins
ISBN: 9780670074594
Price: $32.95