In writing the Hot Press books preview for 2024 back in January, I suggested the new novel from Irish author Sarah Crossan, Hey Zoey, might have the year’s best log-line. The story focuses on the middle-aged Dolores, whose happy marriage to her husband, David, is thrown into disarray when she discovers he’s been hiding an animatronic sex doll in the garage.

Ultimately, Dolores forms an unexpected attachment to the doll, Zoey – who’s able to talk thanks to AI – and various other aspects of her life are also teased out, as the story examines her past and her relationship with various family members. It all makes for a compelling, affecting and often wickedly funny read.

When did Crossan originally conceive of the book?

“It’s hard to pinpoint when you first get an idea,” she considers. “I just saw these dolls for sale and thought, ‘Who’s buying them?’ I pitched it to my agent and said, ‘What do you think of this as an idea?’ She said, ‘It’s horrendous! What’s the book about?!’ I said, ‘Well, I think it’s about women and how we’re perceived, and internalised misogyny and all of those things.’ We didn’t know how it would work and how I’d get into those themes, but that’s the way it went.

“When people see the log-line, they think it’s a book set in the future, but it’s based on the technology that’s currently available. So it was interesting doing the research.”

An instinctive writer, Crossan notes that particularly in creating the first draft, she worried the book might not ultimately work.

“It was like, ‘Why have I wasted three years writing this nonsense?’” she reflects.

“Also, a lot of it is quite graphic and on the nose, in a way that might make people feel uncomfortable. But I just allowed myself to write all the darkness. Through the editing process, I didn’t soften or censor it, but perhaps I found a way to make it a little more palatable for the reader. So what you read is actually more palatable than it was prior to the edit!”

Was internalised misogyny a theme Sarah was interested in from the outset?

“I’ve always wanted to write about it,” she nods. “We’ve been spun this lie that there is equality between men and women. I’m not someone who disapproves of the sex industry or pornography – I don’t have any moral objections to any of these things. I do have a feminist objection, and an objection in terms of how much these things actually help to progress the cause. That’s a little bit what I wanted to write about.

“When you think of the ubiquitous nature of pornography, you have women being smacked, choked and spat on. It’s a very ordinary thing that happens in straight pornography. I think it bleeds into the way that women and men interact, but it’s something that’s very difficult to talk about, because you’d have to admit you knew about these things in the first place.

“Funnily enough, it’s the same now talking about the book. I have to talk about the knowledge I have of this part of the sex industry, which is really uncomfortable. Because I have a family, a daughter, and a father who’s alive and living in Donegal. It was like, ‘What are people gonna say about what’s going in my mind, if these are the things I want to write about?’

“But ultimately it’s about, are we equal? And if we are, what does this doll say about what it is men want? And what do women feel about themselves when they look at these dolls?”

KEEPING SECRETS

It is amazing to consider how huge pornography is in the culture now, and yet no one ever talks about it.

“Well, if you talk about it, does that mean you watch it?” says Sarah. “Does it mean you approve? Or if you disapprove, does that mean you’re a prude, a non-feminist, or anti women doing what they want with their bodies? If you talk about it, it starts to have a another meaning. So, you just don’t, even though I think it’s the way most young people are being educated about sex, and it’s quite a dangerous way. The power dynamic in that is stark and frightening.”

Unfortunately, a lot of pornography is either grotesque or boring – or both – and much of it is disconcertingly cold as well.

“There’s even the language that’s used,” notes Crossan. “I was speaking to a friend, who had another friend who was writing an article about the language used in pornography. A lot of it is, ‘These women get destroyed’, or ‘smashed’ – those are the tags that get used. Whereas, what are men doing? Are they doing the destroying? My question is, ‘Is it being presented in this way because that’s ultimately what men want? Or is that what men and women start to think is desirable, because that’s what they’re being fed?’

“I’m not quite sure which way round it goes. Is it through that you find our desire, or is that ultimately the desire anyway? And if that ultimately is the desire, that’s a quite a frightening thought.”

I also wonder if, to some degree, Hey Zoey is addressing how couples maintain a spark in long-term relationships.

“I don’t think so,” says Sarah. “It’s more, how do you establish intimacy when you’re keeping secrets? And can you maintain intimacy with a long-term partner, if there’s things about yourself that you can’t reveal to the partner? And maybe there’s things about yourself that you don’t even admit to yourself. It’s about the damage that’s done to us and how we carry that damage into our relationships, our marriages and our whole lives, really.

“Also, it’s about things that were done to us when we were children, or things we see when we’re children, and how we were educated. And how we think we have this freedom to make choices about our relationships, but actually, maybe we’re just perpetuating damage that was done to us. Again, it’s a question, because I don’t have any answer to that.”

WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE

With Dolores ultimately forming a relationship with Zoey through their conversations, does Sarah feel the doll acts as a mean for Dolores to better understand herself?

“I think there’s less vulnerability required when we interact with technology,” she says. “Which is maybe why we do interact with technology so frequently and intimately, because we’re not exposing ourselves to another human being, and their judgement and preconceptions of who we are. We all do that in our lives, even in terms of not making a phone call to people.

“You’re not going to make an event, so you text someone. It’s easier to use the technology as a buffer between you and someone else. It’s taking away from our humanity, in a way, and our ability to connect with one another. I live near the South Downs, and sometimes I’ll be out walking with my daughter. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and she’s got her face in her phone. I’ll be thinking, ‘Is this what you’re gonna do with your one wild and precious life?’”

The author further teases out the subject. “I had a problem with technology to the extent everybody does,” she continues. “It was taking up my time and eating up my creative life; it wasn’t providing me with any nourishment. There’s a book called How To Break Up With Your Phone, which I ironically listened to on my phone as an audiobook!

But it really made me aware of how I’m behaving like a robot in my interaction with this machine, because of how cleverly they’re designed, I suppose. No one is gonna be on their death bed thinking, ‘I wish I’d spent more time on Instagram!’ I can’t imagine that happening.”

• Hey Zoey is out now.

Check out our interview with Sarah Crossan and more in the latest issue of Hot Press: