Wally Lamb is the author of four New York Times bestselling novels—Wishin’ and Hopin’ (Harper), The Hour I First Believed (Harper), I Know This Much Is True (Regan Books), and She’s Come Undone (Atria). His novel in progress, excerpted here, is tentatively titled We Are Water. Lamb also edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for the past twelve years.