Why a Booktrail?
1973: A gripping and compassionate family drama set between neighbours in suburban New York
Ask Again, Yes
What you need to know before your trail
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.
Locations
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Travel around New York BookTrail style with Ask Again, Yes
Set largely in Manhattan in the Bronx where the men of the two families meet when working for the police. Then one of them moves to fictional Gillam in upstate New York followed by the other one. Families are added to and the sense of domesticity kicks in.
Two families living side by side, one neighbourhood , however this sense of domesticity is false. The physical setting is not important other than to herald the start of the American dream, moving out from the city to the suburbs. A nice home, family and friends. That white picket fence!
A story with characters at its core.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Ask Again, Yes
Destination: New York City, The Bronx Author/guide: Mary Beth Keane Departure Time: 1970s
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