How long does it take to read The River Is Waiting?
The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb takes about 8 hours 16 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 8 hours 16 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2025. 451 pages, about 124,025 words.
17 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 13 hours 47 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 8 hours 16 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 10 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother's enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?
Subjects: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Adult Fiction, Family