‘Brilliant, compelling, entertaining and a joy to read … an extraordinarily good book.’ – Philippa Perry

‘A riveting story and a meditation on work, loss, intimacy, and desire’ – Ottessa Moshfegh
‘Haunting, original, intelligent’ – Tessa Hadley
‘Powerful and thought-provoking’ – Claire Fuller
‘It has remained with me in a way few other books have ever done’ – Sarah Perry
‘Breathtaking; raw, powerful and pivotally, unabashed’ Aoife Abbey
‘Lyrical, tender, and profoundly insightful’ – Abraham Verghese

Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student have given way to an unintended career as a care worker. One spring, Bryn – a retired carpenter – hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self.

As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple’s household, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds – between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women – in new ways.

Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing the most intimate reaches of a young woman’s heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out.