A Prayer for Owen Meany

Author: John Irving
Series: 20 coming of age novels
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 658 pages
ASIN: 0062204092

Irving is a masterful storyteller, and has a knack for drawing compelling characters. We see Johnny and his unusual best friend Owen grow up and attend the prep school where Johnny’s stepfather teaches, before Owen heads off to ROTC as the Vietnam War escalates. This modern classic gently addresses heavy themes of fate, loss, and faith and it’s no wonder so many claim it as their favorite novel.

About the Book

Publisher’s description:

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.

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