In conversation with Laura Spence-Ash, moderated by Carol VanDenHende
3:40 – 4:30 at Church of the Redeemer
About the author
Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. She was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing, and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. She is the author of The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes—a New York Times bestseller and a Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Summer Reads Pick. Ask Again, Yes has been sold in twenty-two languages. She lives in New York with her family.
MFOB featured book: The Half Moon
Malcolm Gephardt is everyone’s favorite bartender. He is gregarious, charming, and handsome. For as long as he can remember, he has wanted to own a bar. And when his longtime boss Hugh announces his plans to retire and move to Florida, Malcolm feels certain that the stars have aligned. Although he can’t afford it, he buys the bar from Hugh and is certain that he can – through sheer will and charisma – make it work. His wife Jess is not so sure. They are already in debt and Jess is dealing with private sorrows of her own. They are struggling to keep their marriage intact and their heads above water when Neil, a divorced dad raising three kids on his own, moves to town. Jess wonders if life might be better, happier, and fuller with this man.
The Half Moon is about many things: infidelity, infertility, financial precarity, the disappointments and consolations of midlife, the tri-state area, and the unique pleasure of ending a long day with a drink at your favorite bar. But it is mostly about what makes a family, what breaks a family, and what it takes to keep a family together.
