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In this "brilliant ... and darkly funny" (Sarah Dunn) novel, Dolores O'Shea's marriage collapsed when she discovers her husband's AI sex doll in the garage—but after moving "Zoey" into the house, they become oddly bonded, opening the door to a lifetime of repressed feelings and memories.
43-year-old Dolores O'Shea is logical, organized, and prepared to handle whatever comes her way. She keeps up with her job and housework, takes care of her mentally declining mother, and remains close with her old friends and her younger sister who's moved to New York. Though her marriage with David, an anesthesiologist, isn't what is used to be, nothing can quite prepare her for Zoey, the $8,000 AI sex doll that David has secretly purchased and stuffed away in the garage. At first, Zoey sparks an uncharacteristically strong violence in Dolores, whose entire life is suddenly cast in doubt. But then, Dolores and Zoey start to talk...and what surfaces runs deeper than Dolores could have ever expected, with consequences for all of the relationships in her life, especially her relationship to herself. Provocative, brilliant, and tender, Hey, Zoey is an electrifying new novel about the painful truths of modern-day connection and the complicated and unexpected forms that love can take in a lifetime.
"Crossan has imagined her AI responses so brilliantly it hurts—she plays a much more profound role in what is ultimately a moving, troubling, even heartbreaking book…[Hey, Zoey] firmly places her in a group with Sally Rooney, Caroline O'Donoghue, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and Eimear McBride, millennial Irish women writers we love. Extremely easy to read and equally hard to forget." ―Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
"Readers will enjoy this astute page-turner." —Publishers Weekly
"In light of the proliferation of AI in all aspects of life, this is a timely read, sure to appeal to book groups that enjoy the work of Gary Shteyngart, Ottessa Moshfegh, or Dave Eggers." —Library Journal
"Brilliant, provocative, and darkly funny, Sarah Crossan's Hey, Zoey explores the impossibility of connection, and the things we hide from ourselves and the people we love." ―Sarah Dunn, author of The Arrangement
"Funny/dark. Tender/tough. Uncanny/relatable. Hey, Zoey is a searing novel about true intimacy and the things humans will do to protect themselves from it. You've never read anything quite like it, and only Sarah Crossan could have written it." ―Erin Kelly, author of The Poison Tree
"Examining how humanity can be found in unexpected places, one of our most inventive writers, Sarah Crossan, blends comedy, drama, and heartbreak in a novel that is as surprising as it is memorable." ―John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
This information about Hey, Zoey was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sarah Crossan has lived in Dublin, London and New York, and now lives in Brighton. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at Cambridge University. Sarah has won many international awards for her verse novels, including the CILIP Carnegie Medal, the CBI Book of Year award and the CLiPPA Poetry Award. This is her first novel for adults.
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