We Are Water. Wally Lamb

       This one is for two strong women:

       Joan Joffe Hall and Shirley Woodka

      Ghost of a Chance

       You see a man

       trying to think.

       You want to say

       to everything:

       Keep off! Give him room!

       But you only watch,

       terrified

       the old consolations

       will get him at last

       like a fish

       half-dead from flopping

       and almost crawling

       across the shingle

       almost breathing

       the raw, agonizing

       air

       till a wave

       pulls it back blind into the triumphant

       sea.

      —Adrienne Rich

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Dedication

       Epigraph

Prologue

Gualtiero Agnello

Part I: Art and Service

Chapter One: Annie Oh

Chapter Two: Orion Oh

Chapter Three: Annie Oh

Chapter Four: Orion Oh

Chapter Five: Annie Oh

       Chapter Six: Orion Oh

       Chapter Seven: Annie Oh

       Chapter Eight: Orion Oh

       Chapter Nine: Annie Oh

       Part II: Mercy

       Chapter Ten: Ruth Fletcher

       Part III: Family

       Chapter Eleven: Andrew Oh

       Chapter Twelve: Marissa Oh

       Chapter Thirteen: Ariane Oh

       Chapter Fourteen: Orion Oh

       Chapter Fifteen: Andrew Oh

       Chapter Sixteen: Orion Oh

       Chapter Seventeen: Andrew Oh

       Chapter Eighteen: Orion Oh

       Part IV: A Wedding

       Chapter Nineteen: Kent Kelly

       Chapter Twenty: Annie Oh

       Chapter Twenty-One: Kent Kelly

       Chapter Twenty-Two: Annie Oh

       Chapter Twenty-Three: Kent Kelly

       Chapter Twenty-Four: Andrew Oh

       Chapter Twenty-Five: Annie Oh

       Chapter Twenty-Six: Andrew Oh

       Part V: Three Years Later

       Chapter Twenty-Seven: Orion Oh

       Chapter Twenty-Eight: Orion Oh

       Chapter Twenty-Nine: Orion Oh

       Gratitude

       A Note from Wally Lamb

       About the Author

       Also by Wally Lamb

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       Prologue