ABOUT
THE BOOK

With his stunning debut novel, She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman’s painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heart-breaking and poignant multi-generational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal – this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud King must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. Dominick Birdsey’s entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic identical twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man, and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother’s watchful “monkey”; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother’s gentle “bunny.” From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness – and ultimately self-protection – in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. But Dominick’s talent for survival comes at enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick’s lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors – a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily’s Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity’s deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.