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

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.

Wally Lamb grabs you and keeps you

The story was excellent as were the actors, including the author. My all-time fav of Wally Lamb's works is She's Come Undone but this book is tied with "She's . . . Look forward to future books.

True Wally style

Wally's dark graying of the complexities of human nature always muddy my own thoughts of how life should be and push me to be a better person.

Amazing characters and shocking where he took them ......and us!

I have loved every story by Wally Lamb. He has taken me on journeys that were so consuming I had to put the book down to process before going any further. This book was hands down his best work and having him read the part of what I would consider the main protagonist was a treat. All the readers were dead on and all the character came to life in a way that the written word cannot provide you. Not that I will be putting my books down any time soon, this was a " performance." I closed my eyes and it was truly theater . Mr. Lamb took us to some very dark places , not that he has ever shied away from them, this was particularly heart wrenching and gave me the creeps to the point of feeling like I needed a bath. Don't let this one get away.......we ARE all water and this story explains exactly what that means and why knowing it is so important.

Interesting, but wouldn't necessarily recommend

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

I would tell a friend that this book is really, really long with too many details. Also, some of the chapters are very graphic. Too graphic for me. I actually skipped Kent's chapters and don't feel like I missed anything.

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

I've read other Wally Lamb books, and this was my least favorite.

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

I actually liked Annie's narration. I thought all the narrators were very good and easy to listen to.

Was We Are Water worth the listening time?

Sort of. I really started speeding up the narration rate by half way through the story. It's too detailed.

Any additional comments?

This book includes pedophilia and rape. It's very graphic. Interesting to listen to Wally Lamb's description on writing those parts.

We really are water.....

What did you love best about We Are Water?

I enjoyed the characters and loved the narration. Even the difficult scenes were handled with grace and didn't lose a bit of the intensity. It isn't easy to find a novel as satisfying as this one.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many..

Outstanding book

This is one of the best books I have listened to on Audible. The narrators were excellent and the characters were so well developed. All time favorite.

disturbingly beautiful realism

Wally lamb will always be my favorite author, so to head Orion in his own voice was a real treat. had to skip ahead with certain points of view, but that is to be expected with the subject.
he's always worth reading