Speech Team -- Tim Murphy, Hardcover

"A tender-hearted novel and a dream to read. I loved this book." -- Matt Haig #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library

A funny, gossipy and ultimately poignant novel about four Gen X teen friends turned 21st-century adults who awkwardly come back together to confront an influential teacher whose brutal remarks have haunted them all for years.

In his early forties, nonprofit writer Tip Murray is just getting past the wreckage of his youth and settling into semi-humdrum married New England domesticity. Things take an unusual turn when he receives shocking news from his high school best friend, hippie farmer Natalie, that one of their former teammates from speech team, Pete, has committed suicide. Surprisingly mentioned in Pete's final Facebook post? A devastating comment made to him by their speech team coach, Gary Gold.

Feeling nostalgic for their 80s adolescence, Tip and Nat decide to reconnect with two long lost friends from the team, haughty menswear designer Anthony and tightly wound college professor Jennifer. The reunited quartet quickly discover an unsettling thread: all were quietly wounded by Mr. Gold's deeply cutting remarks. The silver lining? Gold is still alive, and a quick Google search shows that he has retired to Florida. There's only one thing left to do: fly down to a posh resort to confront him. What happens next is far from what any of them could have imagined.

Fueled by cringe-y confrontations and 80s nostalgia, a literary mashup of The Breakfast Club and The Big Chill, Speech Team explores what it means to take account of the pain that can suffuse a life and what it means, years on, to move forward.

"Tim Murphy is a genius at sweeping, character-driven stories that suck you in until the very last page, and Speach Team is no exception." --Andy Cohen

Author: Tim Murphy
Publisher: Viking
Published: 07/25/2023
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.37w x 1.01d
ISBN: 9780593653845

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2023 pg. 15
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2023

About the Author
Tim Murphy is the author of Correspondents and Christodora, which was long-listed for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian. He has also been a journalist for the past twenty-five years.