Ask Me Again

Clare Sestanovich author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:23rd Jan '25

Should be back in stock very soon

Ask Me Again cover

Ask Me Again is a smart, funny platonic love story about two young people learning who they are and what they stand for in a divided world.

Ask Me Again is a smart and funny coming-of-age novel that explores platonic love and what it is to define yourself and your beliefs in a world obsessed by the things that divide us.

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'
- Jonathan Lee, The Guardian

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

Pulled along by the shimmering subtleties of Sestanovich’s prose, we track our boy and girl into adulthood . . . a finely drawn portrait of the kind of friendship we rarely see in contemporary fiction -- Jonathan Lee, The Guardian
Sestanovich’s allusive tone and incisive prose recall the best of Rooney -- Michael Arditti, Spectator
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
Quietly revelatory . . . there is something of Sally Rooney in Ask Me Again’s creation of intimacy through curiosity and gentle interrogation. Although here, refreshingly, rather than centring on connection, the narrative propulsion is towards making peace with being alone . . . an assured coming-of-age novel asks if we can truly know anyone but ourselves -- Miriam Balanescu, Financial Times
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 *
Ask Me Again is both an impressive and sophisticated novel -- Lucy Thynne, The Daily Telegraph

ISBN: 9781529053593

Dimensions: 197mm x 130mm x 21mm

Weight: 228g

320 pages