Speak to Strangers

Gemma Seltzer

Filed under Books, Fiction, Gemma Seltzer

£9.99

My mind was elsewhere when you asked me about my default printer. I don’t have the right one. I have the wrong one. I wanted to know why, but you couldn’t explain. Heads turned, also needing an answer. How can something change overnight? We need routine here. A solution would come, you promised us. I saw how you described my needs on your clipboard, both names spelt incorrectly and a dash leading to a series of numbers. This is how you represent my needs. I want to throw off my cardigan and the cold air to fall on my skin.

(‘Day 1′)

London is a city full of strangers and Gemma Seltzer wants to meet them all.

Originally conceived as a daily fiction blog, Speak to Strangers is a funny, provocative and elegant series of one hundred hundred-word stories,which chart a journey across the city through its inhabitants.

The first 50 copies of Speak to Strangers are signed by the author and come with a specially designed moll and mostin bookmark

Reviews

“Fantastic, evocative miniature masterpieces”
Josie Long

“Cryptic, evocative and confessional [...] From moustachioed Millwall supporters to aggressive commuters, make-up sales women, waitresses and countless shopkeepers, Seltzer is concerned less with what’s said than what isn’t; all that underlies the random, perfunctory exchanges that comprise city life. Less like short stories than extended haikus, these prose snapshots are perfect for pondering on the bus or Tube.”
Stephanie Cross, The Lady

“A beautiful book … from a writer in command of her abilities, disseminating seemingly bitesize chunks that speak volumes.”
Booktrust

“heart-warming and innovative … a depth and variety so diverse that it is difficult to believe that this is one person’s journey in just one city”
Emma Young, The Short Review (and read an interview with Gemma here)

Audio

Gemma speaks to Anjan Saha on London Literature Lounge, Resonance FM, 3 July 2011

Gemma on the Londonist Out Loud podcast

Video

Gemma releases the first copy of Speak to Strangers at Spitalfields Market in her day-long London book-drop