Mary Beth Keane is the author of The Walking People, and Fever. Past honors for her writing include the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” designation, and a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction writing. Her most recent novel, Ask Again, Yes, debuted at #5 on the New York Times best seller list. Maureen Corrigan calls it, “One of the most unpretentiously profound books I’ve read in a long time…modestly magnificent.” 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.
