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The River Is Waiting

A Novel

ebook
0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks
0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 13 weeks
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 Book Club selections, returns with an exceptional third pick, a propulsive 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?
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    The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

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    A publication with images and logos, converted to meet EPUB Accessibility specifications of WCAG-AA level. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images and logos, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order, structural navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages from print have been removed in this ebook, with related page number spans set on the first following in-spine page. Certain front and back matter pages have been adjusted in the reading order sequence from print, with related page references reordered in the page-list order.

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  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2025
      A year after being laid off, artist Corby Ledbetter is floundering. He enjoys the opportunity to care for his twin toddlers but struggles with anxiety and depression and finds himself repeatedly turning to alcohol and benzodiazepines to make it through the days, all while lying to his wife about how he spends his time. One morning, a moment of inattention leads to a horrifying tragedy that results in Corby being sentenced to three years in prison. During his incarceration, Corby grapples with his feelings of guilt, remorse, and anger and questions whether he will ever be truly forgiven for his crime, particularly by his wife. Lamb, who has spent years running a writing program at a women's correctional institution, sheds light on the inhumanity and cruelty of the American prison system, at times in graphic detail, while also offering glimmers of hope and friendship in the characters of a supportive librarian, a kind cellmate, and a young inmate wrestling with his own demons. There are no simple resolutions in this gripping drama, and Lamb offers plenty to ponder about guilt, innocence, rehabilitation, and forgiveness.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2025
      "Can a man who caused the death of his childever atone enough to be forgiven?" That is the central question raised by Lamb's novel of every parent's worst nightmare. That nightmare becomes a reality for unemployed commercial artist Corby Ledbetter, who cares for toddler twins Maisie and Niko while his wife, Emily, works. One morning in 2017, Corby pops a couple of Ativans, pours rum in his coffee, plays peekaboo with the kids, burns the toast, and ruminates about his marriage, all before backing his car over Niko in the driveway. In these horrific yet riveting opening 12 pages, Corby's narration is as blatantly unreliable--"It's not like I'm addicted"--as his character is unsympathetic. His denial and self-pity are infuriating compared to Emily's raw despair over Niko's death. But during the course of the next three years, Corby gradually earns more trust. The first turning point occurs when he realizes that lying about his responsibility devalues Niko's life, and he chooses to confess his intoxication to both Emily and the police. Found guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, he heads to prison for three years, the future of his marriage uncertain. The almost day-by-day recounting of his prison experience makes up the bulk of Corby's narration. Expect familiar tropes: racist white inmates; sadistic guards; a gossipy gay cellmate who evolves into a genuine, trustworthy friend; a saintly prison librarian who gives Corby space to create art. Corby's self-education about systemic inequality and racism, however earnest and accurate, tends toward the didactic. But Lamb expertly shows his arduous, bumpy progression toward maturity and creates equally complex characters in Emily and especially in Solomon, an emotionally fragile young inmate Colby takes under his protection, probably saving his life--an ironic parallel neither lost on readers nor overstated. This sometimes-gripping, sometimes-labored story of grief, guilt, and healing is uneven, like the recovery it chronicles.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2025

      Lamb, a bestseller whose fiction has twice been picked for Oprah's Book Club, returns with the story of a young father who is sentenced to prison after he causes an unbearable tragedy. In jail, he forms kinship with the prison librarian and others, finding a way to transcend the walls of his cell and think about hope, mercy, and reconciliation. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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