New Releases by Wally Lamb

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Oprah Bookclub Picks I Know This Much Is True and She's Come Undone comes the heart wrenching story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable"--

“Wally Lamb’s affection for these characters is so palpable, his intentions so palpably good, that it’s hard not to be touched by this sweet-natured novel.”—Washington Post In this radiant homage to the resiliency, strength, and power of women, Wally Lamb—author of numerous New York Times bestselling novels including She’s Come Undone, I Know This Much is True, and We Are Water—weaves an evocative, deeply affecting tapestry of one Baby Boomer's life and the trio of unforgettable women who have changed it. I’ll Take You There centers on Felix, a film scholar who runs a Monday night movie club in what was once a vaudeville theater. One evening, while setting up a film in the projectionist booth, he’s confronted by the ghost of Lois Weber, a trailblazing motion picture director from Hollywood’s silent film era. Lois invites Felix to revisit—and in some cases relive—scenes from his past as they are projected onto the cinema’s big screen. In these magical movies, the medium of film becomes the lens for Felix to reflect on the women who profoundly impacted his life. There’s his daughter Aliza, a Gen Y writer for New York Magazine who is trying to align her postmodern feminist beliefs with her lofty career ambitions; his sister, Frances, with whom he once shared a complicated bond of kindness and cruelty; and Verna, a fiery would-be contender for the 1951 Miss Rheingold competition, a beauty contest sponsored by a Brooklyn-based beer manufacturer that became a marketing phenomenon for two decades. At first unnerved by these ethereal apparitions, Felix comes to look forward to his encounters with Lois, who is later joined by the spirits of other celluloid muses. Against the backdrop of a kaleidoscopic convergence of politics and pop culture, family secrets, and Hollywood iconography, Felix gains an enlightened understanding of the pressures and trials of the women closest to him, and of the feminine ideals and feminist realities that all women, of every era, must face.

From New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb comes a collection of some of his most beloved novels. This eBook bundle includes The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much is True, We Are Water, and Wishin' and Hopin'.

“A mesmerizing novel about a family in crisis.”— Miami Herald A disquieting and ultimately uplifting novel about a marriage, a family, and human resilience in the face of tragedy, from Wally Lamb, the New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed and I Know This Much Is True. After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh—wife, mother, outsider artist—has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family’s hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora’s Box of toxic secrets—dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs’ lives. We Are Water is a layered portrait of marriage, family, and the inexorable need for understanding and connection, told in the alternating voices of the Ohs—nonconformist, Anna; her ex-husband, Orion, a psychologist; Ariane, the do-gooder daughter, and her twin, Andrew, the rebellious only son; and free-spirited Marissa, the youngest. It is also a portrait of modern America, exploring issues of class, changing social mores, the legacy of racial violence, and the nature of creativity and art. With humor and compassion, Wally Lamb brilliantly captures the essence of human experience and the ways in which we search for love and meaning in our lives.

In this New York Times bestselling extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. "Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...." Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up. In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.

It's 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he'll never forget. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. Back in his beloved fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, with a new cast of endearing characters, Wally Lamb takes his readers straight into the halls of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School—where Mother Filomina's word is law and goody-two-shoes Rosalie Twerski is sure to be minding everyone's business. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette, straight from QuÉbec, and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing, cultural misunderstanding, and tableaux vivants, Wishin' and Hopin' barrels toward one outrageous Christmas. From the Funicello family's bus-station lunch counter to the elementary school playground (with an uproarious stop at the Pillsbury Bake-Off), Wishin' and Hopin' is a vivid slice of 1960s life, a wise and witty holiday tale that celebrates where we've been—and how far we've come.

“This book is a bonbon for any baby boomer. . . . Lamb gets Felix’s voice just right, and he does a spot-on job of evoking the special joys and trials of parochial school in the ‘60’s…Put a bow on this book and warm somebody’s heart.” — St. Petersburg Times Wally Lamb, the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone, delivers a holiday treat with Wishin’ and Hopin’—an unforgettable novella that captures the warmth and joy of the holiday season. It's 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone’s turntable, and ten-year-old Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. But there are several things young Felix can depend on: the birds and bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he’s never going to forget. Poignant and hilarious, in a vein similar to Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story and David Sedaris’s The Santaland Diaries, Lamb’s Christmas tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello—a distant cousin of the iconic Annette!

New York Times Bestseller "The beauty of The Hour I First Believed, a soaring novel as amazingly graceful as the classic hymn that provides the title, is that Lamb never loses sight of the spark of human resilience. . . . Lamb’s wonderful novel offers us the promise and power of hope.”—Miami Herald The profound and compelling story of a personal quest for meaning and faith from Wally Lamb, #1 New York Times bestselling author of She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True When 47-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Connecticut to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm back east. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues. In The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life. The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character.

“Powerful . . . In I’ll Fly Away, the women have penned well-drawn evocative pieces about their experiences . . . . Healing is happening through writing.”—Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers The #1 New York Times bestselling author offers an inspiring new collection of writings from the members of his acclaimed program in Connecticut’s York Correctional Facility In 2003 Wally Lamb, published Couldn’t Keep It to Myself, a collection of essays by the students in his writing workshop at the maximum-security York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s only prison for women. The New York Times described the book as “Gut-tearing tales . . . the unvarnished truth.” Now Lamb returns with I’ll Fly Away, a new volume of intimate, searching pieces from the York workshop. Here, 20 women—18 inmates and two of Lamb’s cofacilitators—share the experiences that shaped them from childhood and that haunt and inspire them to this day. These portraits, vignettes, and stories depict with soul-baring honesty how and why women land in prison—and what happens once they get there. The stories are as varied as the individuals who wrote them, but each testifies to the same core truth: the universal value of knowing oneself and changing one’s life through the power of the written word.

In a stunning work of insight and hope, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb once again reveals his unmatched talent for finding humanity in the lost and lonely and celebrates the transforming power of the written word. For several years, Lamb has taught writing to a group of women prisoners at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. In this unforgettable collection, the women of York describe in their own words how they were imprisoned by abuse, rejection, and their own self-destructive impulses long before they entered the criminal justice system. Yet these are powerful stories of hope and healing, told by writers who have left victimhood behind. In his moving introduction, Lamb describes the incredible journey of expression and self-awareness the women took through their writing and shares how they challenged him as a teacher and as a fellow author. Couldn't Keep It to Myself is a true testament to the process of finding oneself and working toward a better day.

Véritable livre-phénomène aux Etats-Unis, La Puissance des vaincus explore l'extraordinaire complexité des liens qui unissent des frères jumeaux. Un roman à la fois cru et sensible, sombre et pourtant optimiste, qui parle de la faute et du rachat, d'amour et de pardon. Le 12 octobre 1990, Thomas Birdsey entre dans la bibliothèque de Three Rivers et, devant les lecteurs terrorisés, s'ampute de la main : un acte religieux, dira-t-il, afin de protester contre l'intervention militaire américaine en Irak. Il est interné dans un établissement psychiatrique de haute sécurité, d'où son frère jumeau, Dominick va tenter de le faire sortir. Dominick a toujours lutté afin d'affirmer sa différence face à Thomas, l'enfant fragile, trop protégé par leur mère et peu armé pour affronter le monde ou la violence de leur beau-père. Mais, depuis les premiers signes des troubles mentaux de Thomas, Dominick l'a aussi porté à bout de bras, enrageant de lui sacrifier sa propre vie. Terrifié par le mélange d'amour et de haine que lui inspire ce double négatif de lui-même, il est dévoré de culpabilité. Afin de trouver des réponses à la folie de son frère, Dominick, avec l'aide de la psychiatre de Thomas, va accepter de relire leur histoire familiale. Une plongée dans leur passé d'enfants illégitimes qui l'entraîne jusque sur les traces d'un terrible grand-père sicilien. Là, peut-être, dans les douloureux secrets d'autrefois, trouvera-t-il enfin la clé de leur identité... " La Puissance des vaincus est un gros livre qui a le courage de s'attaquer à d'immenses interrogations. Comment peut-on, vivre avec des questions auxquelles seuls les morts pourraient donner une réponse ? Comment s'en sort-on, face à un beau-père violent qui pourtant a toujours été là quand vous avez eu besoin de lui ? Dostoïevski des temps modernes [...] Lamb montre que ce n'est pas seulement le présent qui est un enfer et ruine nos chances de bonheur, ce sont aussi les fantômes du passé. " New York Times Book Review " La Puissance des vaincus est un roman-fleuve, extrêmement touffu, qui nous raconte l'histoire de deux frères jumeaux, l'un schizophrène, l'autre sain d'esprit. L'auteur y aborde des questions de société aussi variées que les droits des Amérindiens et la pédophilie. Il nous offre une fin de toute beauté, simple et inoubliable. " Times " Le nouveau livre de Wally Lamb est une saga, une saga fascinante où le héros finit par trouver la paix après de terribles épreuves. " People " L'histoire est retorse, pleine des secrets coupables d'une famille qui reproduit de génération en génération ses comportements pervers. Un projet ambitieux, mais qui atteint ses objectifs grâce à un suspense magistralement entretenu, un humour noir parfois macabre et quelques coups de théâtre bien sentis. " Publishers Weekly " L'histoire de la littérature est jalonnée de ce genre de bonnes surprises qui révolutionnent le roman. Le dernier Wally Lamb est époustouflant. Le Chant de Dolorès, sa première œuvre, était excellent, mais ce nouveau livre est un vrai chef-d'œuvre. " Associated Press

Véritable livre phénomène aux Etats-Unis, où il s'est vendu à plus de trois millions d'exemplaires, Le Chant de Dolorès relate la lente renaissance d'une femme au terme d'une adolescence meurtrie. Dolorès Price a onze ans lorque son père les quitte, sa mère et elle. Et treize lorsqu'elle est violée par le locataire de sa grand-mère, chez qui elle habite désormais. Blessée, humiliée, elle vit repliée sur elle-même, se gavant de nourriture et de feuilletons télévisés, et c'est une adolescente obèse qui, quoique à contrecœur, entrera à l'université. Maniant à l'envi le sarcasme et l'humour noir comme des remèdes à sa souffrance, Dolorès raconte le calvaire de ses années d'études : l'abîme de solitude dans lequel elle s'enfonce, à l'âge où ses camarades vont de fêtes en flirts, et son besoin désespéré d'amour et de tendresse qui finira par la conduire au bord du gouffre... Le combat qui l'attend, après sa tentative de suicide, sera le plus difficile : apprendre à s'accepter, seul moyen pour elle de survivre et, pourquoi pas, de renaître... Tour à tour désabusé, férocement drôle ou franchement désespéré, le regard que Dolorès porte sur elle-même est toujours d'une incroyable lucidité. A travers ce personnage vibrant de vérité, ce sont les fractures intimes et les douleurs secrètes de toutes les femmes que Wally Lamb a su comprendre et restituer.

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

1965 gerät die Welt der 13jährigen Dolores Price aus den Fugen: Trennung der Eltern, Vergewaltigung, 7 Jahre in der Psychiatrie, eine unglückliche Ehe und viele Schwierigkeiten, ihren Weg zu finden.