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Lamb, front, takes a pony ride on McKinley Avenue with sisters Gail, middle, and Vita, in this undated photo.

on my mind
By Kate Bucklin Photography by Chris Hetzer

Despite his best-seller status and international acclaim as an author, Norwich native Wally Lamb has not strayed far from the city in which he grew up. And he has no plans to do so. We talk to him about his success and his next book.
ts a sunny a ernoon in late summer, and Wally Lamb is standing on the sidewalk not far from his childhood home on McKinley Avenue. Were taking a brief tour of his old neighborhood so he can point out spots that play a role in his new book, We Are Water, set to come out in fall 2013. e water would have come right down here, he says, pointing toward Lake Street. Just then, a guy in a

pickup truck drives by and yells, Hey Wally, hows it going? Hey, Lamb says, with a smile and a wave. e brief interaction is a testament to how this New York Times best-selling author and Oprah Winfrey favorite has stayed connected to his hometown. He hasnt lived in Norwich in several decades - although he hasnt gone too far geographically. His o ce is in Willimantic
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and his home in Mans eld. Yet Lamb has set many of his acclaimed books - including this newest story in a place called ree Rivers. Its pretty much Norwich, Lamb, 62, says about the ctional town of ree Rivers. We Are Water is, in part, about the March 6, 1963 ood in Norwich and the devastation it causes one young family (It is also about a famous artist from Norwich and includes a character based on former Slater Memorial Museum Director Joe Gualtieri, but more about that later.) Lambs publishing house, HarperCollins, is set to release the book, which is the authors h, in 2013. is [book] is probably more personal than some of my earlier stu , Lamb said.

Thanks, Oprah

Lambs rst book, Shes Come Undone, was published in 1992. at year, Oprah Winfrey called Lamb to tell him she enjoyed the book. In 1997, Oprah selected it for her wildly popular book club. A lot of people didnt read it until 1997, Lamb said. At the time Oprah picked his book, he was an English teacher at his alma mater, Norwich Free Academy. He was own to a dinner party where readers discussed his book, and later appeared on the show. I just remember at the dinner party it was, like, the best food Id ever tasted, recalled Lamb with a laugh. A year later, he got to do it again when Oprah picked his second novel, I Know is Much is True, for the Oprah Book Club. Both books reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. While he admits, It was all such a rollercoaster ride and that makes it challenging a er a while, Lamb has stayed grounded. Hes quick with a smile or a story. He wears T-shirts with the Bennys store logo on them, favors ballcaps and prefers to keep an o ce on the second oor of a two-family home in Willimantic as opposed to in Boston or New York City. I dont have a desire to get a second home or move to Malibu, said Lamb. is is where I live.

Norwich Free Academy, graduating in 1968. Following high school he went to college up the road a few miles, at the University of Connecticut. I got out of UCONN and went right back to NFA, he said. I always knew I wanted to teach. He taught in the English Department there for 25 years, leaving in 1998. He then instructed courses at UCONN for a short time. He and his wife, Chris, raised, their three sons, Jared, Jason and Teddy, in Willimantic and Mans eld. Two of the boys are now teachers. In 1999, Lamb agreed to visit the York Correctional Institute in Niantic (Connecticuts only womens prison) to speak with inmates. I was just supposed to go there one time to speak, said Lamb. It clicked. is year marks the 13th he has facilitated a writing course there. He has edited two collections of autobiographical stories from his students at the prison: Couldnt Keep It to Myself: Testimonies om Our Imprisoned Sisters and Ill Fly Away: Further Testimonies om the Women of York Prison.

We Are Water

Norwich native

Wally Lamb was born in Norwich October 17, 1950. His parents, Walter and Anna, raised Wally and his sisters, Vita and Gail, in a modest home on McKinley Avenue. His father worked for the gas department of the public utilities department of Norwich (now Norwich Public Utilities). His mother, whose maiden name was Pedace, was one of 11 children of Italian immigrants. He attended Norwich public schools before entering

Lamb had recently released his third and fourth books, e Hour I First Believed and Wishin and Hopin, and was giving an interview on a local Norwich radio station in 2009 when he was asked what his next book would be about. I had no idea, so I said, maybe Ill do something about the ood, said Lamb. Listeners started calling into the station. Among the people Lamb heard from was a woman who was cousins with three men who, as young boys, lost their mother, Margaret Moody, in the ood. e March 6, 1963 ood sent as much as 6.5 million gallons of icy-cold water pouring into downtown Norwich. e water, carrying ice blocks, rushed down from a burst dam at Mohegan Park at about 9 p.m. that night. Margaret Moody was one of six people killed in the ood. As Lamb tells the story, Tom and Margaret Moody and their three young sons, ages 4, 2, and 6 months, got in the car along with neighbor Tony Orsini, to try and escape the coming water. e family lived on Lake Street and headed toward Boswell in the car. But the car met the tidal wave of water, and was carried over a retaining wall located at the back of what was then Lamperell Motors. Tom Moody and Orsini were able to li the three boys out of the car and into a tree, said Lamb. e father went back to grab the mother, and she slipped away, Lamb said. As part of his research for We Are Water, Lamb connected with the three Moody boys, Tom, James and Shawn.

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The ood of 1963 sent as much as 6.5 million gallons of icy-cold water pouring into downtown Norwich. The water, carrying ice blocks, rushed down from a burst dam at Mohegan Park at about 9 p.m. on March 6, 1963.

Lamb at age nine

Lamb at age 17

Lamb's home on McKinley Avenue. He grew up here with his parents, Walter and Anna, and his sisters, Vita and Gail.

Lamb at age 21

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Tom, it turned out, was writing his own version of the events, said Lamb. I ew him up from Texas, where he lives, and we all met, along with Tony Orsini. e ve of us went up to Mohegan and walked the ood path. Together, the men were able to locate the tree they clung to on the night of March 6, 1963. Lamb was 12 years old when the ood happened. He remembers two days of cold, rainy weather preceded the dam burst. We lived at 33 McKinley Avenue, which was right near where the water came down, said Lamb. I remember looking across the road, and it looked like Misquamicut (Beach).

Ellis Ruley

We Are Water also has a character based on the late Norwich artist, Ellis Ruley. A black man who lived on a farm in Norwich from the 1930s to 1950s, he had been a laborer, but was injured during work and received a settlement, said Lamb. Ruley was a self-taught painter who used house paint and cardboard to create his art. His work did not become popular until the 1990s, which was well a er his death in 1959. He died in a suspicious manner, and soon a er his house went up in ames, said Lamb. It was assumed that his paintings were gone but years and years later, they started showing up and he became celebrated. Ruleys story is about much more than just being a talented artist. He was a black man married to a white woman in the 1950s. He owned property on Fox Hill and a ashy car, according to Lamb. ese elements incensed some members of the community. Ruley and the Moody family (all of whose names are changed in the book) are connected in We Are Water through a mutual acquaintance a character based on former Slater Memorial Museum Director Joseph Gualtieri. His character is the connector, said Lamb. His actual connection with Ruley is he was the only person to give Ruley his own art show when Ruley was alive. When we last met with Lamb in late August, he was working on nal edits for We Are Water. Fans should expect to see the book published by HarperCollins by Fall 2013.

Top: Lamb stands at the corner of McKinley Avenue and Grove Street, just a few steps from his childhood home. Left: This photo is of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades of the Old West Town Street School. Wally Lamb's father, the late Walter Lamb, is in the second row, second from left.

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