Maisie

Through it all, she fights to shield her daughter from further harm, though Maisie, too, is increasingly distraught — and confused.

Wally Lamb’s first novel in nine years, “The River Is Waiting,” opens with a devastating scene in which a troubled but devoted stay-at-home dad spikes his coffee with two splashes of Captain Morgan and pops an Ativan before getting into a car to drive his two-year-olds, Niko and Maisie, to their grandmother’s.

He buckles Maisie into her car seat while Niko studies a swarm of ants devouring cookie crumbs on their driveway.

In his few conversations with Emily, he’s often blithe, focused more on the inconveniences prison life poses or whether Maisie will remember him than on what his wife and daughter must deal with.

Starring alongside Maisie Williams, 17-year-old Pugh was still in the sixth form at St Edward's School in Oxford when she was cast.