Ask Again, Yes - Hardcover

Keane, Mary Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1982106980 ISBN 13: 9781982106980

Publisher: Scribner Book Company, 2019

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The Tonight Show Summer Reads Pick * "One of the most unpretentiously profound books I've read in a long time...modestly magnificent." --Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

"A beautiful novel, bursting at the seams with empathy." --Elle

How much can a family forgive?

A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses--the loneliness of Francis's wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian's wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next 40 years. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood--villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter's love story, while haunted by echoes from the past, is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

Review:

"Mary Beth Keane looks past the veneer that covers ordinary moments and into the very heart of real life. There's a Tolstoyan gravity, insight, and moral heft in these pages, and Keane's ability to plumb the depths of authentic feeling while avoiding sentimentality leaves one shaking one's head in frank admiration. This wonderful book is so many things: a gripping family drama; a sensitive meditation on mental illness; a referendum on the power and cost of loyalty; a ripping yarn that takes us down into the depths and back up; in short, a triumph."
--Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves

"Mary Beth Keane combines Joan Didion's exacting eye for detail with the emotional wallop of Alice McDermott. From the ache of first love to the recognition that the people closest to us are flawed and human, Ask Again, Yes is a moving testament to the necessary act of forgiveness. It is heartbreaking, hopeful, and honest."
--Brendan Mathews, author of The World of Tomorrow

"I devoured this astonishing tale of two families linked by chance, love, and tragedy. Mary Beth Keane gives us characters so complex and alive that I find myself still thinking of them days after turning the final page. A must-read."
--J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions

"Mary Beth Keane is at the height of her powers in this novel about the sacrifices we make when we choose to build a life with someone. In Ask Again Yes, Keane tells a story about the fragility of happiness, the violence lurking beneath everyday life, and, ultimately, the power of love. If you've ever loved someone beyond reason, you will love this wise, tender, and beautiful book."
--Eleanor Henderson, author of Ten Thousand Saints

"Mary Beth Keane takes on one of the most difficult problems in fiction--how to write about human decency. In Ask Again, Yes, Keane creates a layered emotional truth that makes a compelling case for compassion over blame, understanding over grudge, and the resilience of hearts that can accept the contradictions of love."
-- Louise Erdrich, author of The Round House

"Ask Again, Yes is a powerful and moving novel of family, trauma, and the defining moments in people's lives. Mary Beth Keane is a writer of extraordinary depth, feeling and wit. Readers will love this book, as I did."
--Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion

"Keane's story embraces family lives in all their muted, ordinary, yet seismic shades... offers empathy and the long view... Tender and patient, the novel avoids excessive sweetness while planting itself deep in the soil of commitment and attachment. Graceful and mature. A solidly satisfying, immersive read."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"Thoughtful, compassionate... illustrates the mutability of memory and the softening effects of time... poignantly demonstrates how grace can emerge from forgiveness."
--Publishers Weekly

"Remarkable."
--Booklist

"A beautiful novel, bursting at the seams with empathy."
--Brianna Kovan, Elle

About the Author:

Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She has been named one of the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35," and was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing. She currently lives in Pearl River, New York with her husband and their two sons. She is the author of The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes.

• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1982106980
• ISBN 13: 9781982106980
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400