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

A+++++++++ALL OF WALLY LAMB'S NOVELS ARE AMAZING.

Any additional comments?

If you have never read Wally Lamb's novels, stop whatever you are doing/reading and get one. ALL OF THEM ARE EXCELLENT. He writes long books that you never want to end. I love his books so much I have read a few of them twice. I finish the book. Usually cry. And start on page 1 for a second read.

One too many . . .

There seems to be moment, at least for me, in the last few books by Wally Lamb where I am going along, enjoying the melodrama for all it's worth, the bad decisions, the broken relationships, and then Wally asks me to jump one hurdle too high.

Annnnnd the spell is broken. I just don't buy it. It is one misfortune too many. This happened for me in the second half of the book with one of the children. I will not get into spoilers but it was at this point where I went, "Nope. This is too much."

Lamb plunges into familiar themes: failed marriages, abusive parents, child molestation, abandoned husbands, repressed wives and random violence. And often times these many stories come off as believable and moving. But just as often I, as the reader, felt manipulated. There was just a little too much handwringing for me.

Each character in We are Water has his or her own sad tale, some sadder than others, but all pandering for your understanding. There is Annie Oh, artist provocateur, who is seeking a new life in the big city with her new love; her ex-husband, who was still trying to come to terms will with his divorce from Annie; there are the children, each struggling to find a foothold on their lives and each struggling to come to terms with their mother's new life.

Is this book badly written? No, of course not. I am glad I read it and will read his next with much anticipation. It is just that this book was heavy-handed, like Lamb doesn't trust the emotions to come through without overt earnestness. In this way the book is different from say a book like Heft where much is in what is not said. This, of course, has been a criticism with most of his work. I just think he was able to pull it off better with his earlier books.

Maggie reading is awful

It's unfortunate that one person can ruin something when the rest was so good. The book content is great. The story I awesome and Wally Lamb is my all time favorite. The pedophile portions may make people uncomfortable, but Wally nailed it. I admire his courage to air that dirty laundry and force people to understand how it happens and why, even if they don't want to hear it. The Annie Oh reading was just awful. It was so overdone and shame on the producer for allowing it. It was like nails on a chalkboard. I always supplement my reading with audible and I was able to not listen to Annie Oh, and yes it was that bad. I hope it doesn't keep anyone else from finishing the book.

Emotional read that I couldn't put down

a friend loaned me her hardback version of this book that I was trying to squeeze into my daily regimen. After the first two chapters I was hooked. I decided that doing the audio version would allow me to accomplish some other mundane tasks simultaneously! The readers are marvelous and I finished the book in two days!

great book

was dubious at first but this book was terrific. I may have a new favorite author.

Best audio production I have ever listened to!

Any additional comments?

I mean it when i say that this is the best audiobook production I have ever listened to. I have probably listened to about 75 books at this point. Each and every character was so wonderfully portrayed, and really made you believe you were peaking in on their lives and minds. Wally Lamb has successfully written another beautifully novel. You can definately tell Mr. Lamb put a lot of careful research into a lot of subjects and issues that were woven into themes within the book.You will not be sorry if you listen to this! I highly recommend.

Wally Does it Again!

I was hooked in from the beginning. I laughed, cried, and enjoyed the wild ride. I love the many unexpected twists and turns. I thought The Hour I First Believed was my favorite, but now this! What's next Wally?

Good

Good story to listen to. Parts of it captivated me to know more, the middle was my favorite part the ending not so much.

excruciatingly good

So well written. oh my geez it was hard to hear/read Kent's view. Sickening. I had to stop And call home to talk to my kids.

Family Secrets

I absolutely loved this story. Having never read one of your stories, I wasn’t sure what to expect, however, characters were clear and you gave many references to cement their character. Before the final 5 chapters, the book jumped around a lot but the end chapters were great and great explanations were given. I didn’t care for the “bluntness” if Kent’s character but it was important to the storyline. Can see a part 2 of this book. There were so many unanswered finalization stories many of the characters. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story with us. Secrets are meant to be kept, right?????