Description

One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year
‘A finely drawn portrait of the kind of friendship we rarely see in contemporary fiction’ – The Guardian
‘Impressive and sophisticated’ – The Daily Telegraph

How much knowledge do you need in order to know someone?

As her grandmother is dying, sixteen-year-old Eva wanders the halls of a hospital. There, she spots Jamie. Despite having little in common, from this chance-encounter stems a life-changing platonic love.

She is sixteen, living in middle-class Brooklyn; he is the same age, but from the super-rich of Upper Manhattan. She’s observant, cautious, eager to seem normal; he’s bold, mysterious, eccentric. Eva’s family is warm and welcoming, but Jamie avoids going home to his.

As Eva goes off to university and falls in and out of love, Jamie drops out and is drawn towards radical experiments in politics and religion. Their separate spheres seem to be spiralling away from each other, but it soon becomes clear that they are both circling the same question: how do you define yourself and your beliefs in a divided and unjust world?

Written with precision and immense wit, Ask Me Again is a journey of intimacy across time. A love story of sorts, this coming-of-age novel explores how relationships can define us, change us and point us towards futures we might not have imagined for ourselves.

A Finalist for The Center For Fiction First Novel Prize

‘Beautiful . . . Clare Sestanovich is a writer of disarming radiance’ – Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness
‘A deeply philosophical novel, which surprises and delights at every turn’ – Jenny Offill, author of Weather

Publisher Review

Ask Me Again is a beautifully observed and deeply philosophical novel, which surprises and delights at every turn. — Jenny Offill, author of Weather Rigorous, intensely observed, and brimming with the sort of elusive revelations that form the heartbeat of a life, Sestanovich’s novel debut demonstrates a tremendous gift at rendering the texture of love, faith, and heartbreak with both subtlety and force. In her masterful hands, relationships condense, turn acute, and unfurl with symphonic grace across the individual arcs of characters that you can’t help but carry with you long afterward. — Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun This beautiful debut novel is wise about intellectual and erotic discovery, disenchantment and loneliness. It’s alert to the small moments of awkwardness and grace that make up the texture of common life; its quiet, tectonic power comes from an awareness of how easily common life can tilt toward catastrophe. Clare Sestanovich is a writer of disarming radiance. — Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness Sestanovich captivates with her distinctive characterizations . . . an intelligent exploration of lives in the making. * Publishers Weekly *