An Evening with Author Wally Lamb

Join us for an intimate literary evening featuring bestselling author Wally Lamb in conversation with his longtime editor Marysue Rucci. In his first novel in nine years, Lamb has crafted a propulsive story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable.  In The River is Waiting, Lamb explores how people survive in the shadow of forgiveness in a novel that compassionately captures the best and worst of humanity.

Fueled by Lamb’s decades of teaching within a correctional facility and his own journey with addiction and sobriety, The River is Waiting is a wrenching, vulnerable novel that never shies away from the issues many families reckon with today: economic pressures, incarceration, addiction, and untimely death. 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. 

Following the main event, Mr. Lamb will be signing copies of his novel. 

Please be advised that this novel depicts the accidental death of a child which may be disturbing for some. 

Wally Lamb is the author of seven New York Times bestselling novels: I’ll Take You There, We Are Water, Wishin’ and Hopin’, The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone, and The River is Waiting. Lamb also edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, where he was a volunteer facilitator for twenty years.

Marysue Rucci was named VP, Publisher of Scribner Books in February 2025. Prior to that she was VP, EIC, Publisher of Marysue Rucci Books, which she launched in 2021 after having been vice president and editor in chief of the Simon & Schuster imprint for nine years. Marysue acquires a range of bestselling and critically acclaimed fiction and narrative nonfiction. Over the course of her career, Marysue has worked with celebrated authors including Laura Dave, Jessica Knoll, Shonda Rhimes, Alice Hoffman, Paul Yoon, Mona Awad, Megan Miranda, Helen Phillips, Ann Leary, Rebecca Traister, and Vanessa Chan.