Dreams of Speaking

Alice Black, a young Australian, has come to Paris for a writing project on the modern world: telephones, aeroplanes, photocopiers, neon signs and the strange beauty she sees in them. The book stalls, she drifts away from her lover and her family is far off. Then she meets Mr Sakamoto, an old man who lived through the bombing of Nagasaki and is an authority on Alexander Graham Bell. Both are far from home and used to being alone. As he tells her story after story about the great inventions of his lifetime, his knowledge begins to shape her writing, and a rare and fragile friendship grows between them.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

France

First published

2006

Author's age

51 when first published

ISBN

9781741665222 (Vintage, Australia)

9781843431978 (Harvill Secker, United Kingdom)

9780099472049 (Vintage, United Kingdom)

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