Wally Lamb’s first novel in nine years is coming in 2025.
Marysue Rucci Books will publish the author’s The River Is Waiting next spring, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “a wrenching, vulnerable novel that never shies away from the issues most families reckon with today: economic pressures, incarceration, addiction, and death.”
Lamb made his literary debut in 1992 with She’s Come Undone, a novel about the traumatic upbringing of a teenage girl in Rhode Island. The novel was an early pick for Oprah Winfrey’s book club and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
His other books include I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, We Are Water, and, most recently, I’ll Take You There.
The River Is Waiting follows Corby Ledbetter, a young father who is sentenced to prison after causing a tragedy that ruptures his family. While incarcerated, he develops relationships with his fellow inmates and a prison librarian, giving him hope for the future.
“With a deft eye, endless nuance and compassion, and gorgeous prose, Lamb explores the uses and misuses of power in a novel that, while grounded in realism, is ultimately hopeful,” the publisher says.
The River Is Waiting is scheduled for publication on May 6, 2025.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
