Wally Lamb, the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and Sheโs Come Undone, delivers a holiday treat with Wishinโ and Hopinโโan unforgettable novella that captures the warmth and joy of the holiday season.
It's 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyoneโs turntable, and ten-year-old Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth gradeโeasier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. But there are several things young Felix can depend on: the birds and bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas heโs never going to forget.
Poignant and hilarious, in a vein similar to Jean Shepherdโs A Christmas Story and David Sedarisโs The Santaland Diaries, Lambโs Christmas tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicelloโa distant cousin of the iconic Annette!
Wally Lamb is the author of five New York Times bestselling novels: Sheโs Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True, The Hour I First Believed, Wishinโ and Hopinโ, and We Are Water. His first two works of fiction, Sheโs Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were both #1 New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprahโs Book Club. Lamb edited Couldnโt Keep It to Myself, Iโll Fly Away, and You Donโt Know Me, three volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a womenโs prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for two decades. He lives in Connecticut and New York.