Text for You: A Novel

by Sofie Cramer

Overview

A heartwarming story of love, loss, serendipity, and texting.

Now a major motion picture starring Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

After a heated argument, Clara’s fiancé stormed out of their apartment, but before they had a chance to reconcile, he died in a tragic accident. It has been two years, but she’s still paralyzed with grief, and her friends are worried about her. So, to try to say what was left unsaid, she starts texting his old phone. What she doesn’t realize is that the number has been reassigned.
 
Across town, Sven’s phone begins receiving mysterious but heartfelt text messages. He doesn’t respond, but he is captivated by the sender. His own relationship has been on the rocks, and when it ends he sets out to find the person who has been texting him. Neither Sven nor Clara knows what they are setting out to find, but it will change both of their lives forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143136903
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/08/2022
Edition description:	Media Tie-in
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sofie Cramer grew up in the Lüneburg Heath and was born in Soltau in 1974. She studied German and politics in Bonn before moving to Hamburg. After her time as a radio editor, she started her own business. She now works as a freelance writer, editor, and teacher. She has written nine novels, and her first bestseller, Text for You, was adapted into a film in 2016 and for the stage in 2019.
 
Marshall Yarborough is a translator of German literature and a writer.

Editorial Reviews

11/22/2021

A woman finds solace in texting her late lover in Cramer’s unsatisfying debut. It’s been two months since Clara Sommerfeld’s fiancé, Ben, died. To ward off the loneliness, Clara returns to her job and takes up painting, but nothing makes her feel whole—until she decides to text Ben’s old number one night. The catharsis she feels in imagining Ben is receiving her messages is addicting, and she continues to text him. Little does she know that the phone company has reassigned the number: her notes are actually going to journalist Sven Lehmann, who reads them without ever responding. Sven is drawn to Clara’s sentimentality and tenderness, and when he discovers she lives nearby, he decides to track her down. But will Clara forgive him when she finds out he’s been on the other side of her private messages? While Cramer beautifully captures the grief of losing a loved one, the budding romance between Clara and Sven is rushed and unconvincing, making for a lopsided narrative. It’s a commendable effort, but it misses the mark. Agent: Markus Hoffmann, Regal Hoffmann & Assoc. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A heartfelt, compassionate journey about the messy but real side of love. Stock up on tissues." —USA Today

"Charming" —Zibby Owens, Good Morning America

"Deeply emotinal . . . An entertaining and romantic story about second chances and moving forward after loss." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-11-30
A grieving young woman sends texts to her dead fiance’s phone number, not realizing that someone else is receiving the messages.

Clara and her fiance, Ben, had an argument, and later that night, he died in a tragic accident. Two months later, as Clara struggles with her grief, she sends a text to Ben’s phone, knowing he won’t receive it but seeking new ways to cope. Miraculously, sending the text does help a bit, so she sends another the next day, and again the day after that. She never imagines that Ben’s number might have been reassigned to a new customer. Meanwhile, across town, Sven can’t figure out how to respond to the cryptic texts he’s been receiving. After only a few messages, it’s obvious the texts are coming from a grieving woman. Rather than alert the sender she has the wrong number, Sven, who’s dealing with struggles of his own, does nothing. Gradually, he begins to enjoy the texts, even looking forward to them and despairing on days when none arrive. His co-worker Hilke keeps pushing him to uncover the sender’s identity, and before long, Sven is persuaded, using clues from the copious texts to track Clara down. Though he’s already somewhat smitten without even knowing what she looks like, he worries that when they finally meet, she’ll hate him for having read her private messages. Told alternately from Clara's and Sven’s perspectives, the novel has been translated effectively from its original German, the only indication of the book’s origin the names of towns and rivers. Clara and Sven are each well-developed characters with complex interior lives and endearing idiosyncrasies. The story’s supporting characters feel more typecast, but they play their roles sufficiently to move the narrative forward. The story is at its strongest when Clara and Sven are interacting, with the intervening scenes hampering the book’s momentum. Similarly, after its initial setup, the plotline is rather predictable. Even so, the deeply emotional nature of Clara’s texts and Sven’s heartfelt reactions as he reads them are sufficiently absorbing that readers will keep turning pages to see how the characters reach the story’s inevitable conclusion.

An entertaining and romantic story about second chances and moving forward after loss.

Kirkus Reviews

Natalie Naudus and Barrett Leddy narrate an audiobook soon to be a movie. Months after Clara’s fiancé suddenly died, she starts sending messages to his phone number, hoping to come to terms with his death. Unbeknownst to her, his number has been reassigned to Sven, a reporter who lives in another town. Sven is determined to track down the author of the mysterious texts. Naudus’s narration experience shows as she deftly brings Clara to life and realistically portrays male figures. However, secondary female characters frequently sound over-the-top. A less experienced narrator, Leddy gives an enthusiastic performance that often misses. Some variation in the production’s volume requires frequent sound-level adjustments. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2022 - AudioFile

Natalie Naudus and Barrett Leddy narrate an audiobook soon to be a movie. Months after Clara’s fiancé suddenly died, she starts sending messages to his phone number, hoping to come to terms with his death. Unbeknownst to her, his number has been reassigned to Sven, a reporter who lives in another town. Sven is determined to track down the author of the mysterious texts. Naudus’s narration experience shows as she deftly brings Clara to life and realistically portrays male figures. However, secondary female characters frequently sound over-the-top. A less experienced narrator, Leddy gives an enthusiastic performance that often misses. Some variation in the production’s volume requires frequent sound-level adjustments. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2022 - AudioFile