A Father Seeks Redemption After Unthinkable Loss
Grief, prison and forgiveness sit at the heart of Wally Lamb’s novel, but the story never feels cold. It follows a father through devastating consequences with compassion, moral complexity and a stubborn belief in possible redemption after loss and reckoning.
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The River Is Waiting (Oprah's Book Club)
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A Father Seeks Redemption After Unthinkable Loss
Grief, prison and forgiveness sit at the heart of Wally Lamb’s novel, but the story never feels cold. It follows a father through devastating consequences with compassion, moral complexity and a stubborn belief in possible redemption after loss and reckoning.
- Book Synopsis
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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
#1 New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb, celebrated for two prior Oprah's Book Club selections, returns with an exceptional third pick, an ""incandescent"" (Oprah Daily) novel following a young father grappling with unbearable tragedy as he searches for hope, redemption, and the possibility of forgiveness. Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin.
And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother's enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves? An ""immersive novel of redemption"" (The New Yorker), The River Is Waiting is another ""soul-wrenching"" (NPR) masterpiece from celebrated author Wally Lamb.
Ideal for readers who:
- Are drawn to high-quality literary fiction dealing with profound grief, personal guilt and the arduous path to redemption.
- Engage deeply with morally complex human stories entirely shaped by one devastating, life-altering event.
- Follow gritty prison narratives that examine systemic family damage and the ultimate possibility of forgiveness.
- Sit comfortably with compassionate, slow-burn novels that ask difficult and uncomfortable emotional questions.
- About The Author
- Wally Lamb is a nationally honoured teacher of writing in his native America and SHE'S COME UNDONE is his first novel. Lamb lives outside of Hartford in America with his wife of twenty years and their three sons. He continues to teach at the Norwich Free Academy and is writing his second book.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9781668006405
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Scribner, (21 May 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 480
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 22 mm
- Categories: