We Are Water

A Novel

By: Wally Lamb

Narrated by: Wally Lamb, George Guidall, Maggi-Meg Reed, Tavia Gilbert, Richard Ferrone, Edoardo Ballerini, Cynthia Darlow, Therese Plummer, Sandy Rustin

Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

We Are Water is a disquieting and ultimately uplifting audiobook about a marriage, a family, and human resilience in the face of tragedy, from Wally Lamb, the New York Times best-selling author of The Hour I First Believed and I Know This Much is True.

After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh - wife, mother, outsider artist - has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family's hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora's Box of toxic secrets - dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs' 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 Ohs: nonconformist, 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.

The complete list of narrators includes Robin Miles and Sandy Rustin.

©2013 Wally Lamb (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Wally lamb

Amazing
Wally lamb one of my favs.
This book does not disappoint.
His characters stay with you.

Superb character development

Yes this book can be difficult, many people live with nightmarish realities. Wally did an amazing job in exploring these nightmares and showing how amazingly individuals and families can survive and thrive. Love that he read the part of Doctor O. Thank you Wally for such a thoughtful and profound novel. This is one I will carry with me for a long time

Twists and turns of the many plots of the story really kept me interested

Great variety of voices that really gave me ability to picture all the different characters in this very engaging novel.

I love anything that Wally Lamb writes.

We Are Only As Sick As Our Secrets. . .

Wow! Wally Lamb has done it again! I've come to accept that this male writer somehow has a deep understanding of the female experience as well as the male . . . although I'll probably never understand how he did so. This book is simply outstanding; perhaps the best book of the year.

This is a gripping story of a family with secrets that drive them apart and bring them together. It is a difficult read, with child sexual abuse serving as one of the family secrets; and one of the sicknesses, too. That said, it will surely touch a nerve with any reader whose family has experienced violence, abuse, alcoholism, extra-marital affairs, divorce, sibling rivalry or any of many other dysfunctional issues.

The book uses a series to narrators, chapter by chapter, who are primary characters in the book. While some reviewers have indicated they found problems with some of the readers, I didn't. Each was unique and each, I thought, portrayed the character with great skill.

In sum, great story, well read. Highly recommended!

Wonderful bookclub selection!

I started listening to this book and got turned off by the character of Annie Oh after about an hour and quit. My mom read the hard copy and told me to try again. I am so glad that I listened to her. Once I got into the story I was hooked. Wally Lamb is a master at character development. He never shies away from gritty stories and writes such realistic characters its hard to believe they are not real. He must have quite a bit of training in psychology. This story explains how and why the effects of child abuse go on and on for generations - a truly tragic crime. This is not a happy ending story and it leaves you with so much to consider. My bookclub ended up reading it and it was one of our favorites, discussion went on for hours! This is a gem you cannot pass up! The narrators were wonderful and helped keep all the characters defined. Have Wally Lamb narrate the character of Orion Oh, is just perfect and adds so much to the storytelling!

Satisfactory at best

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, it was a mediocre attempt to weave several characters viewpoints.

Would you be willing to try another book from Wally Lamb? Why or why not?

Yes, I've enjoyed other things by him.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was the worst part. Whomever they got to narrate the main female character, Annie had an annoyingly affected way of speaking and she drug her words out in a way I think she was attempting to sound sophisticated? I turned the book off many times to get away from her performance.

Was We Are Water worth the listening time?

not really, no

Why did I wait so long to read this book?

I just finished reading We Are Water by Wally Lamb, and if you haven't read it, wow, just wow. For me it ranks right up there with A Prayer For Owen Meaney by John Irving. It was complicated and complex and layered and well-written. All that and more. It is also has a big layer of depressing, for those of you who don't want to go there. But uplifting in the end. Wally Lamb is not a new author to me. I'll read whatever he writes because whatever he writes is good. I feel comfortable giving this book 5 stars out of 5 and saying this is one of the best books I've ever read. It's about a family - the wife of the family, Annie, is an insider artist who, after she's been married to Orion for 27 years and having 3 children, falls in love with Viveca (a woman!) and leaves Orion. That's just the beginning.

Another Wally Lamb Masterpiece

Who was your favorite character and why?

Annie was my favorite character. Complex, imperfect.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

The best and most sinister was the long lost cousin. His story was the most vivid.

Any additional comments?

An excellent weave of story that I kept me interested to the very end. Don't miss this one. I really loved the multiple actors in this edition. It was a good choice how to read this book.

Mesmerizing

I love Wally Lamb. He has produced another fascinating and enthralling tale that is not to be missed. Listen only when you can provide your full attention to this gripping story.

As usual I am blown away

I always have a little fear of disappointment when I start a new book by a beloved author. Will this be the one that seems like a rehash of the same formula? But the depth of his characters and the way he lets you hear from them in this story is mesmerizing. Always original and always looking deep within the darkness we all have in our hearts.