Since You Ask

Book excerpt: From the author of 52 Men: “[An] intense and insightful new novel . . . portrays a complicated character and her multifaceted mind with deep empathy” (PopMatters). From a Connecticut sanitarium, twenty-four-year-old Betsy Scott tells her doctor a story about the destructive secrets in an outwardly successful family. Confusing love and sex, desire and fear, Betsy grows alienated, confused and desperate. She finally faces truths about herself and her family that enable her to move beyond them and into a new life. Since You Ask is about the origins of sexual compulsion, and the ways in which one young woman tries to overcome it. Winner of the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Award “Although it ends on a hopeful note, this is obviously a very dark book—and potentially a controversial one—but Wareham has created a compelling character who earns her readers’ attention.” —Booklist “A sustained and sustaining adventure . . . Reading this novel, I saw the substance (and substances) of unhappiness transformed into something even brighter than courage. This is a splendid debut.” —Donald Revell, author of Arcady