When Wally Lamb’s first two novels became commercial hits, it felt like a dream come true—until it didn’t. In 1997, the author won the literary lottery: Oprah Winfrey selected his fiction debut, She’s Come Undone, for her book club, turning it into a #1 bestseller. A year later, Lamb’s follow-up, I Know This Much Is True, was also selected—cementing Lamb’s reputation as one of America’s most beloved and recognizable novelists. He felt immense gratitude, but when it came time to write his third novel, The Hour I First Believed, he completely shut down.
“I had imposter syndrome,” Lamb says over Zoom from the kitchen of his home in Storrs, Conn., where he lives with his wife, Christine. “I thought, I’m never going to be able to do this again. I had a million or so readers, and I was afraid to disappoint them.”
The years that followed were some of Lamb’s darkest. His crippling self-doubt was compounded by family challenges, including caring for his ailing parents and trying to help his youngest son—who was Lamb’s nephew until he and his wife adopted him at age four—with mental health struggles. Lamb turned to alcohol to cope, the start of a battle with addiction that lasted throughout his 50s. “I would escape by drinking,” he explains. “My life felt too painful.”
When Lamb got sober 14 years ago, it was a reset. “I stopped being so scared to write. I was able to open my office door and shoo out everyone else’s expectations and reconnect to the joy of writing.”
An acute observer of the human condition, Lamb goes deep into the hearts of his characters and explores their flaws and goodness in equal measure, and his love of storytelling illuminates his prose. In addition to his novels, he is the editor of two collections of autobiographical writings by female inmates at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut (Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away), where he worked as a volunteer writing teacher from 1999 to 2019. Lamb’s books, which examine themes of power and powerlessness, have sold more than three million copies, according to his publisher, Marysue Rucci Books, and have been translated into approximately 18 languages.
Lamb’s first novel in nine years, The River Is Waiting, out in May, concerns Corby Ledbetter, a 30-something married father
of two-year-old twins who has a secret addiction to pills and alcohol. When he causes the death of his son in a horrific accident, he’s sent to prison for 36 months. There he struggles to rebuild his life and save what’s left of his family.
Lamb called on his own addiction experience for the narrative. “My life got so limited,” he recalls. “My wife hung on and thank god she did.” He also drew from his time volunteering at York, where he heard stories of drug use, violence, and resilience. He notes that he doesn’t plot out his novels in advance, or predetermine the endings. “I have to keep showing up to find out what happens next.”
Born in 1950 in Norwich, Conn., Lamb felt lonely as a kid and entertained himself by drawing comic books featuring an alter ego named Herman, a nerd with a bow tie and big hair. “He’d walk down the street and things would happen to him,” Lamb says. “There’d be a holdup, or a safe would fall out a window. He had kind of a hot wife, too, named Barbara. Maybe it was wish fulfillment—even though I was prepubescent.”
Lamb met his own dream girl, Christine, in high school. By then, he knew he wanted to be a teacher. He earned his BA in education from the University of Connecticut in 1972 and his MA in 1977, and in 1984 received his MFA in writing from Vermont College. In 1981, Christine bought him an electric typewriter for his first Father’s Day, and since then writing and teaching have defined his life. He spent 25 years teaching English and writing to high school students at Norwich Free Academy, and two years teaching writing at the University of Connecticut. He credits teaching with making him a better novelist.
Like any great teacher, Lamb has a nurturing spirit and a heightened sense of empathy—qualities that Marysue Rucci, his editor, noticed the first time they met. “We went deep immediately,” she says. “Talking to Wally is like talking to a therapist and a wise person. He’s so good at conveying compassionate characters because that’s how he is personally.”
That skill is on display in The River Is Waiting, which features an unlikable protagonist whom readers will end up liking. When the book opens, Corby is an addict in denial. Laid off from his job in the art department of an advertising firm, he should be sending out résumés, but instead he’s putting rum in his morning coffee and hiding it from his wife. After his son’s death, Corby is convicted of second-degree involuntary manslaughter, and in prison he slowly come to terms with what he’s permanently lost. He battles nightmares and suicidal thoughts, and attempts to sidestep dangerous criminals and help a young inmate.
Lamb masterfully gets into Corby’s head, exploring his insecurities as he tries to stay connected to his wife and remaining child, who’s already forgetting him. Along the way, Corby humbles himself to life, in a story about failure and hope that—like all of Lamb’s books—will uplift readers and break their hearts.
Bill Clegg, Lamb’s agent, believes Lamb’s superpower is his ability to plunge into the darkness of everyday life. “Wally is willing to go into areas that are uncomfortable and murky,” Clegg says. “I don’t think he sees the human experience as tidy or static. His gift is being able to explore the turns that life takes without fear of alienating readers.”
Lamb writes his books in the basement of his house, where he can play loud music during breaks. A fan of the Odyssey and other ancient myths, he has plastic figurines of Greek gods and goddesses on his windowsill to remind him of the classic stories. He reads his works in progress aloud to his wife and relies on his writing group of 20 years for steady feedback. “We take turns meeting at each
other’s houses,” he says of the group. “We used to meet at restaurants, but they kept closing down, and we realized maybe we’re bad for business.”
Lamb is already at work on his next novel, partly set during World War I. “It’s nice to have book sales,” he says. “But really for me—
and I hope this doesn’t sound too Pollyanna—it’s about the human connections that get forged between writers and readers.” It’s that readerly bond that Lamb treasures most. That and the one with his wife—who stuck by him no matter what.
