Susie Salmon speaks to us from heaven, because she was murdered when she was 14 years old by a man who lived in the same neighbourhood. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love and do the things she has never had the chance to do. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet.
In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, a twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, pursued by the constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. In a story spanning five decades, Last Night in Twisted River - John Irving's twelfth novel - depicts the recent half-century in the United States as a world 'where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.' From the novel's taut opening sentence to its elegiac final chapter, what distinguishes Last Night in Twisted River is the author's unmistakable voice, the inimitable voice of an accomplished storyteller.
You're a whirlwind. A success. You live life on the edge. But who'll catch you when you fall? Holly Krauss lives life in a whirlwind - her husband Charlie, her business partner Meg and her colleagues at KS Associates are left breathless by her energy. But sometimes her wild behaviour leads to reckless mistakes. Mistakes which soon leave her life spiralling out of control. And once her descent begins, Holly can do little to stop it. This is most definitely a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown. But is Holly solely responsible for what is happening to her? Are her fears for her own safety caused by the paranoia of her illness - or very real danger . . . ?
In De mensen die weggingen ontmoeten we Joey, een meisje van acht, die ons meeneemt in haar fantasierijke belevingswereld. Met haar onschuldige kijk op de wereld laat ze ons kennismaken met haar familie en hun bezigheden. Het begint erop te lijken dat steeds meer mensen uit Joey's omgeving weggaan zonder gedag te zeggen en op haar eigen kinderlijke wijze probeert ze daarmee om te gaan. Totdat op een dag haar zus verdwijnt zonder afscheid te nemen en Joey zich met vreemden zal moeten inlaten om zelf niet in gevaar te komen...
Een succesvolle 60-jarige schrijfster van damesromans wordt verliefd op de hoofdredacteur van een krant; zijn onduidelijkheid over hun verhouding bezorgt haar een zomer vol emoties en romantische twijfels.