A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel

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Editorial Reviews Review “A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation in the somehow exhausted world of late twentieth-century fiction—it is an amazingly brave piece of work . . . so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world.” - STEPHEN KING, Washington Post “Exhilarating and darkly comic. ... Dickensian in scope. ... Stunning.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review “The magic of A Prayer for Owen Meany is that it forces us into a confrontation with our own carapaces of skepticism . . . It is a brave and subtly disturbing affirmation of faith, and it is all the more remarkable for its engagement with the deepest questions, the most painful mysteries of our lives.” - Los Angeles Times “Brilliantly cinematic . . . Irving shows considerable skill as scene after scene mounts to its moving climax. - ALFRED KAZIN, New York Times "[A] great novel." - Dallas Morning News "A work of genius." - Independent (London) "A heartbreaking masterpiece of a novel." - Sunday Express (London) "Among the very best American novels of our time." - Charlotte Observer From the Back Cover I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany. In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary. About the Author John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning in 1980 for the novel The World According to Garp . In 1992, Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He won the 2000 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules . In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Irving's most recent novel is In One Person (2012).

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Is A Prayer for Owen Meany: A Novel appropriate for my child?

Suitable for most readers 16 and up.

This literary novel explores mature themes of death, faith, and destiny through the friendship of two boys. A pivotal death scene (baseball accident) and the Vietnam War's impact drive the narrative.