The River Is Waiting
First published 2025 · debut
Reception
Mixed reviews. 5 of 7 critics were mixed or negative.
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“Pivots sharply from the domestic sphere — where it’s initially so dramatic — to prison, with all the limits that a penitentiary setting imposes”
2 more quotes
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“All of this should make for a compelling saga, but the fly in the ointment is that Corby is a narcissistic character less concerned with the enormity of his transgression…”
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“Back-and-forthing makes Corby tiresome and unlikable. I feel little sympathy for him, nor do I particularly root for him. Other characters are more intriguing”
- 2026 Longlist
About the book
Read the full description
Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart.
Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?
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Catalogue record
Scribner, 2025 · 432 pages
- Publisher
- Scribner, 2025
- Pages
- 432
- LC · Dewey
- PS3562.A433 R58 · 813.54
- ISBN
- 978-1-6680-0641-2
Full recordClose
- Publisher
- Scribner, 2025
- Pages
- 432
- LC
- PS3562.A433 R58
- Dewey
- 813.54
- ISBNs
-
- 978-1-6680-0641-2
- 978-1-6680-0639-9
- Editions
-
- S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 2025, hardcover, 470 pages
- Scribner, 2025, 432 pages
- Author
- Lamb, Wally, 1950–
- Statement
- The River Is Waiting / Wally Lamb.
- Records
- Open Library Wikidata
- United States
- 2020s
- Crime and mystery
- Family
- Mental health
- Adult Fiction
- Adult
- Addiction
- Corby Ledbetter