Ask Again, Yes
by Mary Beth Keane.
Two families live next door to each other in a small town. Their children, Peter and Kate, born six months apart, are inseparable playmates and best friends.
As teenagers, they start to fall in love. But their relationship is sundered as tragedy strikes, striking a sharp division between the families and preventing any further contact between the young lovers.
Life unfolds. As young adults, Kate and Peter find each other again, despite the cleavage between their families. But past events continue to affect the present in a heartrending, and eventually heartwarming, story.
The Pull of the Stars
Dublin, 1918: three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu.
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new flu are quarantined.