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  • Published: 7 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9780735214392
  • Imprint: Putnam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $34.99

Talk to Me



By the Thurber Prize-winner and author of the New York Times bestseller, Love Poems for Married People, Talk to Me is a wry yet tenderhearted novel for our age, and a sharp look at how one man's mistake can be what leads him back to his family--and to the man he used to be.

It's a story that Ted Grayson has reported time and time again as a network TV anchor: the public downfall of those at the top. He just never imagined that it would happen to him. After a profanity-laced tirade is caught on camera, his reputation and career are destroyed, leaving him without a script for the first time in years.
While American viewers may have loved and trusted Ted for decades, his family certainly didn't; his years of constant travel and his big-screen persona have frayed all of his important relationships. At the time of his meltdown, Ted is estranged from his wife, Claire, and his adult daughter, Franny, a writer for a popular website. When Franny's boss suggests that she confront Ted in an interview, it may be the chance for Ted to take a hard look at how he got here, and to find his way back before it's too late.
Talk to Me is a sharply observed, darkly funny, and ultimately warm story about a man who wakes up too late to the mess he's made of his life...and about our capacity for forgiveness and empathy.

  • Published: 7 January 2020
  • ISBN: 9780735214392
  • Imprint: Putnam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $34.99

About the author

John Kenney

John Kenney is the author of Talk to Me and Truth in Advertising, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He has worked for many years as a copywriter. He has also been a contributor to The New Yorker magazine since 1999. He lives in Brooklyn, New York

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