"A hugely absorbing and deeply heartfelt tale about friendship, unhealed scars and second chances." —Star Tribune
"Touching"—The Washington Post
"Tim Murphy is a genius at sweeping, character-driven stories that suck you in until the very last page, and Speech Team is no exception." —Andy Cohen
"It is a dream to read and Tim Murphy cares so much for his characters that you absolutely believe they live. Which, thanks to snappy dialogue and emotional characterization, they do. Ultimately, it is a book about growing up and how we do it. I am a total newbie to the world of Speech Teams but I loved this book.” —Matt Haig author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Midnight Library
"Murphy, a longtime journalist and author of the novels Christodora (2016) and Correspondents (2019), again brings his finely tuned ability to portray subtle group dynamics to bear in this semiautobiographical update of the Big Chill trope...Misfit kids of the 1970s and ’80s—here's the class reunion you were waiting for." —Kirkus
"Bittersweet, witty, and rife with ‘80s nostalgia, Speech Team tells the story of old friends on a mission for accountability and closure." —Bustle
"Hopeful, darkly comic, and brimming with nostalgia, Speech Team follows a plucky cast of misfits as they reckon with how the past haunts their present. Twenty-five years after graduating high school and growing apart, a shocking event reunites four friends to confront the teacher who both saved and tormented them as teenagers. Their quest is compelling on its own, but it’s Tim Murphy’s tender, compassionate prose that hooked me—that, and all the delicious messiness. Like the juiciest gossip, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to call a friend and scream. This book gives new meaning to what it means to forgive and forget." —Edgar Gomez, author of High Risk Homosexual
“Very few novelists can write with such daring, hilarity, and heartbreak as Tim Murphy. Speech Team is so wildly entertaining you don’t realize its punch until it knocks you flat. The novel is an ode to growing up in the ’80s and reliving those messy, uncouth years in relatively wiser adulthood. But its real subject is the wounds inflicted in our youth that become both our making and unmaking. Murphy creates characters so vivid we don’t want to let them go.” —Christopher Bollen, author of The Lost Americans and A Beautiful Crime
"Speech Team is irresistible: a poignant, funny, achingly relatable tale of youth, aging, and friendship—and the universal process of untangling the past to stitch together the present and future. This is one of those rare novels that’s both illuminating and delightful; I swallowed it whole."—Lauren Acampora, author of The Hundred Waters and The Paper Wasp
"Speech Team is a page-turning pleasure, with a clear-eyed exploration of rediscovered friendships, the unruly passage of time and the extreme unlikeliness of ever truly growing up. Tim Murphy’s writing is joyously specific and acerbically moving, with a deep affection for every sort of character. Readers will cherish this book." —Paul Rudnick, author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style
"How Tip, Anthony, Nat and Jenn confront their tormentor, and what happens, is unexpected and surprising. A page turning, often funny caper that is also a smart exploration of Gen X characters caught between Old Guard Baby Boomer power and today’s hyper-awareness of trauma and identity. Speech Team asks: Can we ever liberate ourselves from the past?" —Mike Albo, author of Another Dimension of Us
"Like the oratory of its misfit gang of multi-culti characters, Speech Team grabs your attention, holds on tight, makes you laugh, makes you think, and might change your mind about a thing or two along the way. First place!" —James Hannaham, author of Delicious Foods and Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
“A high school revenge fantasy disguised as a romp, shot through with longing and loss, narrated by a gimlet-eyed gay ringleader? Please and thank you, Tim Murphy." —Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“Tim Murphy’s riveting Speech Team bravely and beautifully wrestles with two of the fiercest taboos in today’s contentious zeitgeist — nuance and forgiveness.” —Blair Fell, author of The Sign For Home
“Speech Team is a provocative look at how words matter, how they can shape our whole lives. This book left me contemplating the hope we seek in relationships, the courage it takes to face the past, and the power of simply being loved. Told with sharp humor and deep insight, this is an important story for where we are today.” —Maulik Pancholy, award winning author and actor
This is a truly powerful narration by the versatile Daniel Henning. When Pete dies from suicide, his Gen X friends uncover his note. Then the former speech team members discover that Pete was cyberbullied by their old coach, Mr. Gold. As the team confronts him, the members recall hurtful memories and bond in their search for justice. Henning's voice offers the perfect blend of sarcasm and tenderness while delivering the story's many highs and lows. The bright moments between distinct characters are snarky and fun, and their recollections of homophobia are treated as realistically as possible yet with kindness. Most importantly, Henning expertly depicts the relief in learning to move on. G.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
2023-05-09
Bad news about a classmate occasions an unexpected road trip for four high school friends.
When a text from his old pal Natalie Farb-Miola alerts him to the suicide of their classmate Pete Stroman, Tip Murray is deluged with memories of the boy who was his first crush: “No Hollywood star, no Celtics or Patriots god, no muscled, Speedo-wearing deity of Provincetown or Fire Island, will ever compare, because your first flush of desire, amid the tender years where there is no clear line between the treble notes of infatuation and the bass notes of brute lust, will always be the sharpest and the sweetest.” That kind of clarity is missing in his life now. He is five years sober, he owns a home with his boyfriend in Providence, Rhode Island, and he’s “fairly sure” he’s happy, but this news unsettles him in a way he can’t pinpoint. He reconnects with Nat, who was the hippie chick of their high school, and also tracks down Jennifer Douglas, one of the few Black students, a buttoned-up overachiever, and Anthony Malouf, the other gay kid, now a successful fashion designer. All four were on the Speech Team, as was Pete, all fearsome competitors in tournaments around the state, but there are unresolved problems in Tip’s friendship with each of them. In Pete’s suicide note, he recalled a cruel comment made to him by their coach, Gary Gold; it turns out they all nurse wounds dealt by their supposed mentor, who is now retired in Sarasota, Florida. Bankrolled by Anthony, the foursome decides to pay him a visit, but little goes as planned, and the half-mended cracks in Tip's equilibrium spread disastrously. Murphy, a longtime journalist and author of the novels Christodora (2016) and Correspondents (2019), again brings his finely tuned ability to portray subtle group dynamics to bear in this semiautobiographical update of the Big Chill trope. If the persona and behavior of the coach character never quite add up, Murphy seems to be intentionally shrugging in that direction. Maybe cruelty is always somewhat inexplicable.
Misfit kids of the 1970s and ’80s—here's the class reunion you were waiting for.
