Well, this doesn't happen every day. On Friday, you can walk into the Mystic Art Center and sit down and listen to a reading by novelist Wally Lamb.

It's the latest presentation this season by the Arts Cafe - Mystic, and it's our equivalent of 19th-century folks settling into a parlor to hear Charles Dickens preview "Bleak House."

Indeed, Lamb - author of the diverse, richly imagined and riveting "She's Come Undone," "The Hour I First Believed" and "I Know This Much Is True," as well as the Christmas novel "Wishin' and Hopin" - is without question one of the shimmering literary stars in the country. A proudly local guy who grew up in Norwich and details his fiction with plenty of provincial color and lore, Lamb is also very personable and witty - in short, an ideal headliner for the estimable Arts Cafe - Mystic series.

His latest novel, due in the fall of 2013, is called "We Are Water," and Lamb will likely treat fans to excerpts. The evening's musical component will be provided by Sylvia Berry, and poet Owen Hughes is the program's Opening Voice.

- RICK KOSTER

Wally Lamb, Arts Cafe - Mystic, 7:30 p.m. Friday (doors 7 p.m.), Mystic Arts Center, 9 Water St., Mystic; $8, students 21 and under free; (860) 912-2444, theartscafemystic.org