John Irving

In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. A Prayer for Owen Meany is a coming-of-age tale that ranks among the most cherished American classics....

"In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the...

In Avenue of Mysteries, Juan Diego--a fourteen-year-old boy, who was born and grew up in Mexico--has a thirteen-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she thinks she sees what's coming--specifically, her own future and her brother's. Lupe is a mind reader; she doesn't know what everyone is thinking, but she knows what most people are thinking. Regarding what has happened, as opposed to what will, Lupe is usually right about the past; without your...

John Irving's novels have earned him immense popularity, and two have been made into major motion pictures. Now, after a long hiatus, he has released a novel filled with his trademark talent for spinning marvelously convoluted tales. Ruth Cole is four years old when she hears gasping sounds coming from her mother's room one night. Walking through their large house in the Hamptons, Ruth passes familiar photographs of two brothers who died before she...

A commemorative hardcover edition of the only collection ever published of the celebrated novelist's shorter works. Here is a treat for devoted fans of John Irving. First published twenty years ago, Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by the author, beginning with three memoirs. The longest of the memoirs is "The Imaginary Girlfriend," his candid account of his twin careers in writing and wrestling, which, as the Denver Post observed,...

Questa è la storia di una famiglia un po' eccentrica e sgangherata. A raccontarla in prima persona è uno dei cinque figli, quello di mezzo, che dà l'avvio alla narrazione dal giorno in cui suo padre si comprò un orso e sposò sua madre. Poi venne il sidecar e infine i cinque figli. Così equipaggiata la famiglia Berry vaga per il mondo alla ricerca del luogo perfetto per l'Hotel New Hampshire, un luogo dove "ognuno di noi può essere se stesso"....