Ask Again, Yes, Keane Mary Beth

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are two NYPD rookies assigned to the same Bronx precinct in 1973. They arent close friends on the job, but end up living next door to each other outside the city. What goes on behind closed doors in both houses--the loneliness of Franciss wife, Lena, and the instability of Brians wife, Anne, sets the stage for the stunning events to come.

Ask Again, Yes by award-winning author Mary Beth Keane, is a beautifully moving exploration of the friendship and love that blossoms between Franciss youngest daughter, Kate, and Brians son, Peter, who are born six months apart. In the spring of Kate and Peters eighth grade year a violent event divides the neighbors, the Stanhopes are forced to move away, and the children are forbidden to have any further contact.

But Kate and Peter find a way back to each other, and their relationship is tested by the echoes from their past. Ask Again, Yes reveals how the events of childhood look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood--villains lose their menace, and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peters love story is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

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