In 2003 Wally Lamb–the author of two of the most beloved novels of our time, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True–published Couldn’t Keep It to Myself, a collection of essays by the students in his writing workshop at the maximum-security York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s only prison for women. Writing, Lamb discovered, was a way for these women to confront painful memories, face their fears and their failures, and begin to imagine better lives. The New York Times described the book as Gut-tearing tales . . . the unvarnished truth. The Los Angeles Times said of it, Lying next to and rising out of despair, hope permeates this book.
Now Lamb returns with I’ll Fly Away, a new volume of intimate, searching pieces from the York workshop. Here, twenty women–eighteen inmates and two of Lamb’s cofacilitators–share the experiences that shaped them from childhood and that haunt and inspire them to this day. These portraits, vignettes, and stories depict with soul-baring honesty how and why women land in prison–and what happens once they get there. The stories are as varied as the individuals who wrote them, but each testifies to the same core truth: the universal value of knowing oneself and changing one’s life through the power of the written word.
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.
I Know This Much Is True is a novel by Wally Lamb, published in 1998. It was featured in Oprah’s Book Club in June 1998.
The novel takes place in Three Rivers, Connecticut. Dominick Birdsey’s identical twin, Thomas, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. With medication, he can function properly and work at a coffee stand, but occasionally he has severe episodes of his illness. Thinking he is making a sacrificial protest that will stop the war in the Middle East, Thomas cuts off his own hand in a public library. Dominick sees him through the ensuing decision not to attempt to reattach the hand, and makes efforts on his behalf to free him from what he knows to be an inadequate and depressing hospital for the dangerous mentally ill.
She’s Come Undone is a 1992 novel by Wally Lamb which was widely read after being chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club selection in December 1996. Lamb’s breakthrough novel was named a finalist for the 1992 Los Angeles Book Awards’ Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction. Lamb’s other novels include I Know This Much Is True and The Hour I First Believed. She’s Come Undone has been translated into eighteen languages and is read worldwide.
- Chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club selection in December 1996.
- A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
- A People Magazine Top 10 Book of the Year
- A Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist for Best First Novel of the Year
