Mary Beth Keane is the author of five novels, including the New York Times bestseller Ask Again, Yes. She was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction writing and has received citations from the National Book Foundation, PEN America, and the Hemingway Society. Born in the Bronx to parents from the west of Ireland, she lives in New York with her husband and two sons.

"Keane's prose deploys a light, luminous touch even as its plot ventures into heartbreaking territory... Keane is an exceptional storyteller... With richly descriptive prose and a deep understanding of ancestral roots, Whale Harbor reminds readers that when it comes to family, there are no neat and tidy endings." --Shelf Awareness, Maximum Shelf

"Whale Harbor is a very special book, the kind that comes along rarely. It is epic in scope yet, at the same time, so intimate and immersive I could scarcely catch my breath as I read. A meditation on what it means to be a family with all the secret heartaches and disappointments, the losses, and above all, the love that binds them together. Truly magnificent." --Clare Leslie Hall, author of Broken Country

"I picked up Whale Harbor and couldn't stop reading. The gang of brothers, the father, the daughter, the whole family, Ireland, everything--it's a great story, and beautifully written." --Roddy Doyle

"Whale Harbor is a sweeping family saga which gets to the heart of the Irish immigrant experience, from Connemara to Montana to New York. Epic in scope and rich in detail, Whale Harbor understands the complex nature of family bonds, and the way that certain places never relinquish their hold on our imaginations." --Roisín O'Donnell, author of Nesting

"Tender, immersive and exquisitely written, Whale Harbor is the story of a family that seems borne out of both the land and the sea--one that aches with regret and thrums with longing. Mary Beth Keane finds the quiet amongst the bustle of eleven brothers, to pore over their shared mythology and explore the loss, remorse, and fraternal bonds that follow each far into adulthood. I felt I knew the whole cast of characters intimately, as well as the landscapes--the Joyces' Connemara, Montana, and New York will remain etched in my mind. I missed this book whenever I wasn't reading it. Mary Beth Keane is one of my favorite storytellers and here she's at her finest. I adored it." --Florence Knapp, author of The Names

"No one writes about the long arc of family--its loyalties, betrayals, and returns--like Mary Beth Keane. Whale Harbor is an expansive, beautiful novel about how time can reshape love and kinship in ways we'd never anticipate, and a reminder that every family contains a world." --Kathy Wang, author of The Satisfaction Café

"Whale Harbor is an exquisite family epic. I was completely invested in the fates of all the Joyce brothers. The places and people were so expertly drawn, I felt like I walked beside them the whole way." --Claire Lynch, author of A Family Matter

Publisher: Scribner Book Company

Pub date: 2026-11-03

Length: 352 pages