Title: Ask Again, Yes

Author: Mary Beth Keane

Pages: 400 Pages

Publisher: Michael Joseph

The Blurb

A gripping and compassionate drama of two families linked by chance, love and tragedy

Gillam, upstate New York: a town of ordinary, big-lawned suburban houses. The Gleesons have recently moved there and soon welcome the Stanhopes as their new neighbours.

Lonely Lena Gleeson wants a friend but Anne Stanhope – cold, elegant, unstable – wants to be left alone.

It’s left to their children – Lena’s youngest, Kate, and Anne’s only child, Peter – to find their way to one another. To form a friendship whose resilience and love will be almost broken by the fault line dividing both families, and by the terrible tragedy that will engulf them all.

A tragedy whose true origins only become clear many years later . . .

A story of love and redemption, faith and forgiveness, 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.

A story of how, if we’re lucky, the violence lurking beneath everyday life can be vanquished by the power of love.

 (AMAZON BLURB)

The Review

If I was asked to describe Ask Again, Yes then I think I would really struggle. It isn’t a novel where a lot of things happen and yet loads of things happen. It is a novel that is driven by the relationships of the characters but we have a backdrop of the social history of New York over the decades.

The enduring story is one of love and how it can transcend time and circumstance.

I don’t really know how to sell this book except to say that it is brilliant, engaging and absolutely kept me turning the pages until it was over. I had the comfortably warm feeling after I finished and that to me is a sign of a great book.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane is available now.

For more information regarding Mary Beth Keane (@Mary_Beth_Keane) please visit www.marybethkeane.com.

For more information regarding Michael Joseph (@MichaelJBooks) please visit the Twitter page.