Murphy Who Talks, by Ronan O'Shea (paperback)
 
Murphy likes things quiet. As the barman at the Purses Retainer, a half-forgotten pub in North London, he treasures the silence left behind by absent customers. The empty seats are both a blessing and a curse: his sanctuary is safe, but the pub is on the brink of closure.

Murphy has a gift for talking people into leaving him alone—long, winding stories that trap questions rather than answer them. But when the threat of redundancy looms, he sees an unlikely win-win: turn the pub into London’s first silent pub. No phones.

No chatter. Just the perfect place for peace—until Instagram and the media get hold of it. As Murphy’s eccentric experiment spirals into a cultural phenomenon, he meets Rebecca, a yoga teacher who relieves not only his bad back but begins to unravel the grief and isolation he has carried for years.

Suddenly, Murphy must confront the very things silence has helped him to avoid: friendship, identity, love—and the chaos of feeling alive. Wry, sharp and satirical, Murphy Who Talks is a comedy of modern Britain: a story about austerity and survival, male friendship and misogyny, silence and speech, and what it really takes to be heard.