The Hour I First Believed

Literature & Fiction

Lamb, Wally

Contemporary

Harper

Genre Fiction

Harpercollins

It's 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he'll never forget…
The year is 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntables, and Felix Funicello is doing his best to navigate fifth grade - easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares.
Back in his beloved fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, with a new cast of endearing characters, Wally Lamb takes his readers straight into the halls of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School, where Mother Filomina's word is law. But grammar and arithmetic move to the back burner this holiday season with the sudden arrivals of substitute teacher Madame Frechette, straight from Québec, and feisty Russian student Zhenya Kabakova. While Felix learns the meaning of French kissing and cultural misunderstanding, Wishin' and Hopin' barrels toward one outrageous Christmas.
From the Funicello family's bus-station lunch counter to the elementary school playground, Wishin' and Hopin' is a vivid slice of 1960s life, a wise and witty tale that celebrates where we've been, and how far we've come.

Wishin’ and Hopin’

Humor & Satire

Huge American bestselling novel that tells of identical twins: a paranoid schizophrenic and his brother whose life is dominated by his resentment of and love for his damaged twin Dominick Birdsey's whole existence is coloured by the knowledge that his twin brother can never be fully responsible for his frightening behaviour, while he himself has beaten the biochemical odds to remain sane. But at what cost? This powerful, heartwrenching drama draws on the deepest human emotions: the need to know oneself, responsibility to family, the influence of hidden history. The result is a highly acclaimed novel of survival, written with great sensitivity.

I Know This Much is True

ReganBooks

Product Description Wally Lamb's two previous novels, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, struck a chord with readers. They responded to the intensely introspective nature of the books, and to their lively narrative styles and biting humor. One critic called Wally Lamb a "modern-day Dostoyevsky," whose characters struggle not only with their respective pasts, but with a "mocking, sadistic God" in whom they don't believe but to whom they turn, nevertheless, in times of trouble (New York Times). In his new novel, The Hour I First Believed, Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life. The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character. When forty-seven-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues. While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family's house. The colorful and intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War era to Caelum's own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long-buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface. As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary—and American. The Hour I First Believed is a profound and heart-rending work of fiction. Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity. From the Author: Wally Lamb's Playlist for The Hour I First Believed 
 I’m often asked what novels by other authors I 'm reading when I’m writing one of my own. The better question is: What and who am I listening to? I’m pleased to share many of the tunes, recognizable and obscure, that helped me write Part I, "Butterfly" of my novel, The Hour I First Believed. I hope you enjoy them. 1. "Gloria," by Van Morrison from The Sopranos - Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series (Morrison) Caelum saves a slot for Van the Man in his list of “Greatest Songs of the Rock Era.” Morrison had this hit with the band Them in 1964, the year Caelum was 13. 2. "The Meaning of Loneliess," by Van Morrison from Wh at's Wrong with This Picture? (Morrison) In a bluesy mood, now-middle-aged Morrison explores the “existential dread” of life’s second half. Middle-aged Caelum’s pondering life’s meaning, too. 3. "A--hole," by James Luther Dickinson from Free Beer Tomorrow (Unobsky) “Ask any of us cynical bastards to lift up our shirt, and we’ll show you where we got shot in the heart,” says Caelum, as he angrily grieves two failed marriages and a third failing one. 4. "Black Books," by Nils Lofgren from The Sopranos - Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series (Lofgren) Lofgren’s mournful vocal, matched to his stunning guitar work, mirrors Caelum struggles to accept the jolting reality of Maureen’s infidelity. 5. "Useless Desires," by Patty Griffin from Impossible Dream (Griffin) Dr. Patel advises Caelum that if he cannot forgive his wife, he should move on. Instead, the Quirks move away from Three Rivers and toward tragedy in Littleton. Griffin’s bittersweet road song captures both the desire for and the futility of escape. 6. "At the Bottom of Everything," by Bright Eyes from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (C. Oberst) Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes) imagines an airplane ride every bit as strange as the one Caelum takes beside chaos theorist Mickey Schmidt. 7. "House Where Nobody Lives," by Tom Waits from Mule Variations (Waits) In response to his aunt’s stroke, and later, her death, Caelum returns to a now-empty farmhouse. 8. "When God Made Me," by Neil Young from Prairie Wind (Young) Caelum, back in Three Rivers and now in his late forties, contemplates an earlier, more innocent youth--and its loss. 9. "Mbube (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)," by Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Taj Mahal from Long Walk to Freedom (traditional) Mr. Mpipi performs a dance of hunger that turns into a dance of love, and a praying mantis egg case explodes with life on young Caelum’s windowsill. 10. "Believe," by Cher from The Very Best of Cher (B. Higgins/S. McClennan/P. Barry/S. Torch/M. Gray/T. Powell) “Believe” was inescapable in 1999, the year I toured Europe with my previous novel and began this one. The pop star’s durability causes Caelum to speculate that only two life forms would survive a nuclear holocaust: cockroaches and Cher. 11. "My Buddy," by Chet Baker from The Best of Chet Baker Sings (Donaldson/ Kahn) My dad used to sing this song to me when I was a little boy, riding beside him in our green Hudson during Saturday errands. Baker’s songs always makes me sad, but this one’s bittersweet. I played it over and over when I was writing the episode where Caelum’s father drives him to town to buy him his belated Christmas gift. 12. "Mary," by Patty Griffin from Flaming Red (Griffin) When the shooting begins in the Columbine library, Maureen crawls inside a cabinet, writes Caelum a goodbye note, and prays the Hail Mary. 13. "A Case of You," by Prince from A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (Mitchell) This Joni Mitchell classic evokes, for me, the impact of Mo’s Columbine experience on the Quirks’ marriage. 14. "Losing My Religion," by R.E.M. from In Time: The Best of R.E.M 1988-2003 (M. Stipe/P. Buck) How could a merciful deity allow Columbine to happen? Caelum’s ambivalence about god turns to bitter rejection. 15. "Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray," by Maggie and Suzzy Roche, Ysaye Barnwell, and DuPree from Zero Church (traditional) Disengaged and disspirited, Caelum gropes for a spiritual connection but hears only silence. This song was recorded by vocalists from the Roches and Sweet Honey in the Rock in the aftermath of 9/11/2001. The shadow of that cataclysmic day hung over my writing of this novel for six years. 16. "I Drink," by Mary Gauthier from Mercy Now (Gauthier/Harmon) As Maureen’s reliance on prescription drugs increases, Caelum, too, numbs himself--with his father’s, and later Ulysses’s, preferred poison. 17. "Hallelujah," by Jeff Buckley from So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley (L. Cohen) Leonard Cohen’s haunting meditation about the spirit and the flesh has been covered by many artists. The late Jeff Buckley’s version is perhaps the loveliest and most poignant. 18. "The Ghost of Tom Joad," by Bruce Springsteen from The Ghost of Tom Joad (Springsteen) In the closing days of a traumatic school year, in a borrowed classroom, Caelum and his students discuss Steinbeck’s masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. Shortly after, Caelum and Mo will take to the road as the Joads did, yet they’ll travel from west to east. Praise for The Hour I First Believed “Lamb...has delivered a tour de force, his best yet. A” --Entertainment Weekly “Lamb, a maestro of orchestrating emotion . . . knows how to make his fans’ hearts sing.” --Elle “A page-turner... Lamb remains a storyteller at the top of his game.” --USA Today “A soaring novel as amazingly graceful as the classic hymn that provides the title” --Miami Herald “Wally Lamb is a remarkable talent.” --Columbus Dispatch “Every character is rendered with vivid, utterly convincing depth....a heck of a page-turner.” --Dallas Morning News “[Lamb’s] pacing is superb: Sections of the story expand to accommodate a mix of characters, yet scenes don’t linger overlong.” --Cleveland Plain Dealer “Lamb has crafted another affecting, engrossing tome about complicated, interesting characters.” --Minneapolis Star Tribune “…too compelling to put down…a richly textured story...” --St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Lamb does an extraordinary job narrating some of the most terrifying tragedies of the past 10 years....an epic journey. Grade: A.” --Rocky Mountain News “When you put Lamb’s newest novel down, it will be reluctantly. It’s that good.” --Knoxville News-Sentinel

Dramas & Plays

In a stunning work of insight and hope, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb once again reveals his unmatched talent for finding humanity in the lost and lonely and celebrates the transforming power of the written word.
For several years, Lamb has taught writing to a group of women prisoners at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. In this unforgettable collection, the women of York describe in their own words how they were imprisoned by abuse, rejection, and their own self-destructive impulses long before they entered the criminal justice system. Yet these are powerful stories of hope and healing, told by writers who have left victimhood behind.
In his moving introduction, Lamb describes the incredible journey of expression and self-awareness the women took through their writing and shares how they challenged him as a teacher and as a fellow author. Couldn't Keep It to Myself is a true testament to the process of finding oneself and working toward a better day.

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Perennial

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world.

I Know This Much Is True (Oprah's Book Club)

HarpPeren

When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. When Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

Harper-perennial

#1 New York Times Bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection
"Thoughtful . . . heart-wrenching . . . . An exercise in soul-baring storytelling—with the soul belonging to 20th-century America itself. It's hard to read and to stop reading, and impossible to forget." — USA Today
 Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his subdued life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. Dominick is forced to care for his brother as well as confront dark secrets and pain he has buried deep within himself—a journey of the soul that takes him beyond his blue-collar New England town to Sicily’s Mount Etna, the birthplace of his grandfather and namesake. Coming to terms with his life and lineage, Dominick struggles to find forgiveness and finally rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his troubled twin.
I Know This Much Is True is a masterfully told story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal—an unforgettable masterpiece.

Huge American bestselling novel that tells of identical twins: a paranoid schizophrenic and his brother whose life is dominated by his resentment of and love for his damaged twin Dominick Birdsey's whole existence is coloured by the knowledge that his twin brother can never be fully responsible for his frightening behaviour, while he himself has beaten the biochemical odds to remain sane. But at what cost? This powerful, heartwrenching drama draws on the deepest human emotions: the need to know oneself, responsibility to family, the influence of hidden history. The result is a highly acclaimed novel of survival, written with great sensitivity.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lamb, Wally. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lamb, Wally

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lamb, Wally. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed

Wishin’ and Hopin’

I Know This Much is True

The Hour I First Believed

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters)

I Know This Much Is True (Oprah's Book Club)

The Hour I First Believed

I Know This Much Is True (Oprah's Book Club)

I Know This Much Is True (Oprah's Book Club)