{"product_id":"the-hour-i-first-believed-9780061711794","title":"The Hour I First Believed","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Bestseller\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe profound and compelling story of a personal quest for meaning and faith from Wally Lamb, #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestselling author of \u003cem\u003eShe's Come Undone\u003c\/em\u003e and\u003cem\u003e I Know This Much Is True\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The beauty of \u003cem\u003eThe Hour I First Believed\u003c\/em\u003e, a soaring novel as amazingly graceful as the classic hymn that provides the title, is that Lamb never loses sight of the spark of human resilience. . . . Lamb's wonderful novel offers us the promise and power of hope.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cem\u003eMiami Herald\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen 47-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Connecticut to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm back east. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Hour I First Believed\u003c\/em\u003e, Wally Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life. The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLamb, Wally:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eWally Lamb\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eis the author of five \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestselling novels: \u003cem\u003eShe's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishin' and Hopin', \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eWe Are Water\u003c\/em\u003e. His first two works of fiction, \u003cem\u003eShe's Come Undone \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eI Know This Much Is True\u003c\/em\u003e, were both #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestsellers and selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb edited \u003cem\u003eCouldn't Keep It to Myself\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eI'll Fly Away\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eYou Don't Know Me\u003c\/em\u003e, three 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 two decades. He lives in Connecticut and New York.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperLuxe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50317899301138,"sku":"9780061711794","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1747d562-9086-4709-96fb-13faca772a5e.jpg?v=1727542433","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-hour-i-first-believed-9780061711794","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}