John Irving

One of the world's greatest authors retuns with his first novel in seven years--a ghost story and a love story, spanning eight decades of sexual politics. John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time--among them, Th eWorld According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year. Time magazine describes his work as "epic and extraordinary and controversial and sexually brave." Now Irving has...

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto, pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them in this tale...

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....

When he is four years old, Jack travels with his mother Alice, a tattoo artist, to several North Sea ports in search of his father, William Burns. From Copenhagen to Amsterdam, William, a brilliant church organist and profligate womanizer, is always a step ahead -- has always just departed in a wave of scandal, with a new tattoo somewhere on his body from a local master. Alice and Jack abandon their quest, and Jack is educated at schools in Canada...

The author's most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, this novel is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself "worthwhile."

A collection of short stories and essays. The story, My Dinner at the White House, is an amusing piece on a dinner with President Reagan, The Imaginary Girlfriend is on the arts of writing and wrestling, while the title story is on a pig farmer who is being harassed by boys.

A Hindi film star, an American missionary, a pair of twins separated at birth, a diminutive chauffeur, and a serial killer collide in a riotous novel by the author of The World According to Garp
“His most entertaining novel since Garp.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A Son of the Circus is comic genius . . . get ready for [John] Irving's most raucous novel to date.”—The...

The story of the actor Jack Burns. His mother, Alice, is a Toronto tattoo artist. When Jack is four, he travels with Alice to several North Sea ports; they are trying to find Jack's missing father, William, a church organist who is addicted to being tattooed. But Alice is a mystery, and William can't be found. Even Jack's memories are subject to doubt. Jack Burns goes to schools in Canada and New England, but what shape him are his relationships with...