Talk to Me was published by Ecco in 2021. Sam, a chimpanzee, is taught American Sign Language by a linguistics professor as part of a research project into primate cognition. When funding is cut and Sam is to be returned to a research facility, a graduate student named Aimee takes him — essentially kidnapping a signing ape and attempting to raise him in suburban California.
The novel draws on the real history of ape-language research (Washoe, Koko, Nim Chimpsky) and the moral questions it raises: if an animal can communicate in human language, does it have human rights? What obligations do we owe to a creature we have taught to express loneliness, desire, and fear? Boyle refuses easy answers: Sam is both genuinely communicative and genuinely dangerous — a 150-pound wild animal with the vocabulary of a toddler.
The Ape-Language Experiments
The novel draws on real experiments: Washoe (taught ASL by the Gardners at the University of Nevada), Koko (taught by Francine Patterson at Stanford), and Nim Chimpsky (taught by Herbert Terrace at Columbia). All raised profound ethical questions about the treatment of research animals, and all ended controversially. Boyle’s fiction synthesises these cases into a single devastating narrative.
Collecting Talk to Me
First edition (Ecco, New York, 2021): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $15–$30
- Very good: $8–$15
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation. Animal rights and cognitive science remain active areas of public interest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to the real ape-language chimps? Most ended badly. Washoe died in captivity in 2007. Nim Chimpsky was sent to a medical research facility and later an animal sanctuary, where he died in 2000. The ethical failures in these experiments are central to the novel’s moral argument.