Ask Him Why

By: Catherine Ryan Hyde

Narrated by: Amy McFadden, Nick Podehl, Scott Merriman

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From the bestselling author of Pay It Forward comes the stunning and emotional story of a young soldier's unthinkable act...and the bonds of a sister and brother's love.

Ruth and her little brother, Aubrey, are just teenagers when their older brother ships off to Iraq. When Joseph returns, uninjured, only three and a half months later, Ruth is happy he is safe but also deeply worried. How can it be that her courageous big brother has been dishonorably discharged for refusing to go out on duty? Aubrey can't believe that his hero doesn't have very good reasons.

Yet as the horrifying details of the incident emerge, Joseph disappears. In their attempts to find him, Ruth and Aubrey discover he has a past far darker than either of them could imagine. But even as they learn more about their brother, important questions remain unanswered - why did he betray his unit, his country, and now his family? Joseph's refusal to speak ignites a fire in young Aubrey that results in a disastrous, and public, act of rebellion.

The impact of Joseph's fateful decision one night in Baghdad will echo for years to come, with his siblings caught between their love for him and the media's engulfing frenzy of judgment. Will their family ever make their way back to each other and find a way to forgive?

©2015 Catherine Ryan Hyde (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

An amazing book for the doubtful

This is a beautiful look into the lives of the hurting. Of being saved when you didn't think anyone cared to save you. I very much so enjoyed every moment and it ended in the most important way. Well done Catherine Ryan Hyde. And thank you.

ok book

The narration was totally awesome for this audio book. The characters came to life because of their excellent narration. The book's content was only fair compared to their performance.

great book

performance and story line very good. parts were dad, but realistic and eventually redeeming.

Captivating, brilliant, emotionally authentic and compelling

Catherine Ryan Hyde 's writing is vivid, with a gifted feel for character and dialogue. Listening to the audiobook was like a virtual reality experience. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Deeper than I expected, but there were problems

I had my doubts about this at the beginning, thinking it was going to be a best-seller, beach reading type of book, but it did address some difficult issues and situations with more depth than I expected.

One thing I noticed in most of the reviews I've read here was how irritating readers found the younger kids to be, because of all their "whining." But look at those parents! Dad was an authoritarian bully, yelling, criticizing, shaming, and scaring the wits out of the kids. No wonder the younger boy was so angry! And the mother passively accepted everything the father did, without standing up for her kids. I found Ruth to be annoying because of her self-righteous, judgemental attitude. Aubrey was a difficult character, but I actually liked him better than Ruth.

I also found it hard to believe that EVERYONE - the family, the town, and the country - all considered Joseph to be guilty of treason. Doesn't anyone in this book's universe question the military? In real life there would be people standing up for Joseph and demanding to hear his side of the story. Not everyone automatically assumes that someone who disobeys an order while in combat is a traitor to his/her country. Many people in history have gone to prison for refusing to obey orders they found objectionable.

The performance was poor. I really could not stand the way Amy McFadden talked. Someone should tell her that the word "chest" should not sound like "chust." And "said" definitely shouldn't sound like "sad!" That one really irritated me because of all the "I said," "he said," etc, in the book. (Excuse me, "I sad," "he sad.") UGH!

The reader who played Aubrey (Nick Podehl?) was a little better - at least he didn't have that annoying habit of mispronouncing vowels. The reader for Joseph's part was pretty good.

I do have one question, though. Since there were three readers, why couldn't they continue to read their own dialogue, regardless of whose point of view the chapter was being told from? Instead, when it was Aubrey's point of view, he did his character AND Ruth's. Couldn't her reader - annoying as she was - read her dialogue? And vice versa? If you're going to have multiple readers, at least keep the same reader for the same character.

As traumatic as this situation was for everyone, I think the book glossed over the biggest problem in the kids' lives, and that was their controlling, abusive dad, and "yes-woman" mom. That's why they were psychologically screwed up, not because of their brother's actions.

great story!!

this was such a great story I bought it on a daily deal and I am so glad I did!! I really enjoyed it all the way through it was a touching story no regrets here :)

We never ask why

I love this author. We never ask why, not really. Good story of siblings and strangers

Amazing

What a surprise! It's a story that I would never have imagined told from several perspectives. Uplifting and real. Must listen!

enjoyed it

loved Joe & Ham
shows how humans can judge one another yet not have a clue what the other feels sometimes. Good life lesson.

We'll written

The story was good as was the narration. what really got me was the way this was written with the perspective of age. well done