'So Extraordinary, So Original, and So Enriching...'
Stephen King, Washington Post

Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying/ At moments a comic, self-deluded victim, but in the end the principal, tragic actor in a divine plan, Owen Meany is the most heartbreaking hero John Irving has yet created.

'Marvellously funny...the author's wit is an intrinsic part of the book, as the happy brilliance of a sunshaft seems to be part of the landscape it brightens. What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh?'
Philip Glazebrook, The Spectator

'I believe it to be a work of genius...because of its absolutely irrepressible flow of invention and suggestion, expressed in some of the most fascinating prose written in fiction today. Originality has distinguished all Mr Irving's books, but in A Prayer For Owen Meany it achieves a new pitch and a new profundity'
Jan Morris, Independent

'May justly join the classic American list'
Anthony Burgess, Observer

 
I read the synopsis for this book when it was voted one of the top 100 books in the BBC Big Read, and it was intriguing. It was one of the books that most attracted me, and so last week I saw an offer for eight John Irving books and snapped them up. I wasn't prepare to see so many famous titles in my stack, but still this one remains the one I'm most looking forward to. I'm really curious to see if my instant attraction to it will be justified.