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'A triumph of simple beauty' Time 'I Know This Much Is True never grapples with anything less than life's biggest questions! a modern-day Dostoyevsky' New York Times 'Every now and then a book comes along that sets new standards for writers and readers alike. Wally Lamb's latest novel is stunning -- and even that might be an understatement' Associated Press 'Lamb creates a nuanced picture of a flawed but decent man. And the questions that permeate the novel! contribute to a fully developed and triumphantly resolved exploration of one man's suffering and redemption' Publishers Weekly 'A modern Greek tragedy! [Lamb's] success is to present this with terrific readability, tenderness, optimism and, most surprisingly, wit! The hallmark of the book is fine writing and a commendable depth of characterisation' The Times 'Wally Lamb's achievement is to force you to feel Dominick's pain! the events in Dominick's everyday nightmare are presented with a sneaky simplicity which generates emotional tension' Daily Telegraph

Both a moving character study and a gripping story of family conflict are hidden somewhere inside the daunting bulk of this annoyingly slick second novel by Lamb (the popular Oprah selection She's Come Undone, 1992). The character (and narrator) is Dominick Birdsey, a 40-year-old housepainter whose subdued life in his hometown of Three Rivers, Connecticut, is disturbed in 1990 when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic whose condition is complicated by religious mania, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. The story is that of the embattled Birdseys, as recalled in Dominick's elaborated memory-flashbacks and in the autobiography (juxtaposed against the primary narrative) of the twins' maternal grandfather, Italian immigrant (and tyrannical patriarch) Domenico Tempesta. But Lamb combines these promising materials with overattenuated accounts of Dominick's crippled past (the torments inflicted on him and Thomas by an abusive stepfather, a luckless marriage, the crib death of his infant daughter), and with a heavy emphasis on the long-concealed identity of the twins' real father - a mystery eventually solved, not, as Dominick and we expect, in Domenico' self-aggrandizing story, but by a most surprising confession. This novel is derivative (of both Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides and the film Dominick and Eugene), it pushes all the appropriate topical buttons (child abuse, AIDS, New Age psychobabble, Native American dignity, and others), and it works a little too hard at wringing tears. But it's by no means negligible. Lamb writes crisp, tender-tough dialogue, and his portrayal of the decent, conflicted Dominick (who is forced, and blessed, to acknowledge that We were all, in a way, each other ) is convincing. The pathetic, destroyed figure of Thomas is, by virtue of its very opacity, both haunting and troubling. A probable commercial bonanza, but both twice as long and not as much as it should have been. (Kirkus Reviews)

Dominick Birdsey and his identical twin Thomas came into the world as 1949 became 1950. And fortysomething narrator Dominick has always had Thomas - a physical mirror image - as a shadow over his life. The book opens with schizophrenic Thomas's dramatic act of self-mutilation as a protest against American military involvement in the Gulf and it follows Dominick's attempts to deal with the latest lurch into a more terrible form of madness. The story of the brothers' lives is told in scenes that recall the bleak honesty of Raymond Carver, and Dominick's quest to rid himself of the demons of his past and come to terms with the man he has become are apparently the reworking of an ancient Hindu myth. His journey nevertheless encompasses much of the American experience, and takes him back to the Sicilian roots of his immigrant grandfather, in a story that while at times hard to read is hard to put down. Lamb's writing, even at the moments of greatest pain and despair, is compelling in its vital sensitivity, his characters are uncomfortably real and the mystery of Dominick's family becomes intriguingly complex before answers, though not always the expected ones, are found. Powerful, absorbing and unforgettable. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Wally Lamb won many accolades for his first book, SHE'S COME UNDONE, which was one of Oprah's Book Club's earliest selections. He teaches at the University of Connecticut. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and three sons.

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