Ask Me How I Know: A Novel

"Ask Me How I Know is an auspicious debut, and Colangelo is a writer to watch."—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of The Half Moon and Ask Again, Yes

“An unflinching portrait of sisterhood that shows that while we’re not obligated to like our siblings, there’s no getting around learning from them—and what a privilege that is.”—Heather Aimee O’Neill, nationally bestselling author of The Irish Goodbye

After the sudden loss of their father, five sisters and their mother must come together to confront their fractured past and find a new understanding of family, sisterhood, and what it means to forgive in this big, rich, deeply felt debut novel.

With their father’s death, the five Carpenter sisters worry for their widowed mother. A complicated, moody woman, Evelyn struggled with raising and being close to her daughters. Believing their complex needs were better served by their father’s easy love, she retreated into her volunteer work at the church where she felt most at home, leaving the girls to fend for themselves.

Now without the guidepost of her husband, Evelyn is adrift. Her daughters fear she will withdraw entirely without their intervention, so they agree to take on the burden of her care, even though none of them is in a position to do so. Morgan’s bitter heart is broken over a doomed love affair with a married co-worker, making her a cliché she’s tried desperately to avoid becoming. Caroline’s perfectly coiffed life is upended when she makes a shocking discovery about her son and realizes that in her need for control, she’s sacrificed others’ trust. Shy Beth is thrown into a harsh spotlight when her beloved-by-all husband runs for mayor. Jillian is about to marry her childhood sweetheart, a man who has become to feel more like a brother than a fiancé—a truth she can’t admit, especially to herself. And Ashlyn, the youngest, has endured a lifetime of shame because of a terrible secret she never meant to reveal. On the verge of becoming a mother herself, she’s ready to confront the family about the truth of what happened all those years ago.

As the sisters grieve their father and shoulder the care of their mother, they must make a choice: band together or fall utterly, spectacularly apart. A sweeping story of family and shared history, Ask Me How I Know is an intimate and heartbreakingly warm portrait of a family and the decisions they make—a story of what it means to be a sister, a mother, and a woman.