by: Wally Lamb
Goodreads 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?
Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓🤓 1/2
Now this is a book that will stick with me and probably haunt me forever. Before reading, I checked out Goodreads and saw that readers either gave it 1 star or 5 stars with no in between. Very polarizing reviews, but I was still intrigued. I am not sure what to say, it was such a sad, worst case scenario, but I couldn’t put it down. I am not sure if I was drawn to the “trauma porn” (gross expression- I know) or the redemption story. Of course, it was very well written…Oprah wouldn’t steer us wrong…but the suffering…sigh…
Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓3/4
This may be the most depressing book I have ever read. It starts out with a horribly tragic situation and seems to go straight downhill from there. The writing is quite lovely, as Wally Lamb is a very talented author, but this was way too much for me in the genre of “sad tales”. On the flipside, this one was much more than memorable, it was haunting. If this ever becomes a movie, I am skipping it.
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