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 Ohâwife, mother, outsider artistâhas fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh familyâs hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandoraâs Box of toxic secretsâdark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohsâ 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 Ohsânonconformist, 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.
Wally Lamb is the author of five New York Times bestselling novels: Sheâs Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishinâ and Hopinâ, and We Are Water. His first two works of fiction, Sheâs Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both #1 New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprahâs Book Club. Lamb edited Couldnât Keep It to Myself, Iâll Fly Away, and You Donât Know Me, three volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a womenâs prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for two decades. He lives in Connecticut and New York.