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John Irving

    March 2, 1942

    John Irving is a master storyteller, crafting sprawling, epic narratives that delve into themes of fate, coincidence, and complex family dynamics. His prose is celebrated for its rich texture, dark humor, and unexpected twists that immerse readers in worlds both bizarre and profoundly human. Irving expertly weaves disparate elements, such as wrestling motifs and tragic events, into cohesive tales that explore human resilience in the face of life's unpredictability. His works possess a unique charm, examining deep questions of human existence through unforgettable characters and unconventional plots.

    John Irving
    Mussolini Also Did a Lot of Good
    A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound
    The World According to Garp
    Mozart
    A Son of the Circus
    The Cider House Rules
    • Wilbur Larch, a physician, philosopher, obstetrician, and abortionist at St. Cloud's orphanage struggles through his relationship with his apprentice and surrogate son, Homer Wells.

      The Cider House Rules
      4.6
    • A Son of the Circus

      • 830 pages
      • 30 hours of reading

      A Hindi film star . . . an American missionary . . . twins separated at birth . . . a dwarf chauffeur . . . a serial killer . . . all are on a collision course. In the tradition of A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving's characters transcend nationality. They are misfits--coming from everywhere, belonging nowhere. Set almost entirely in India, this is John Irving's most ambitious novel and a major publishing event.

      A Son of the Circus
      4.3
    • Mozart

      The 'Haydn' Quartets

      • 116 pages
      • 5 hours of reading

      Focusing on Mozart's renowned string quartets, this guide highlights the composer's deep friendship with Joseph Haydn, who greatly influenced his work. It explores the musical intricacies and emotional depth of these quartets, offering insights into their historical context and significance. The book serves as both an analysis and appreciation of Mozart's contributions to chamber music, making it a valuable resource for music enthusiasts and scholars alike.

      Mozart
      4.2
    • 'Like all extraordinary books, The World According to Garp defies synopsis', wrote the Chicago Sun Times when Garp was first published in 1978. It is a marvellous, important, permanent novel by a serious artist of remarkable powers. Garp is a book that captivates all who read it. Peopled with the most extraordinary characters you will ever meet, here is a novel that will make you laugh, make you weep, and, above all, make you think.

      The World According to Garp
      4.1
    • Mussolini Also Did a Lot of Good

      • 200 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Surgically, but with wit Francesco Filippi demolishes each and every myth that has taken root about Mussolini and fascism in an uplifting handbook for political and intellectual self-defense. No stones are left unturned, including the colonial devastation of Libya and Ethiopia.

      Mussolini Also Did a Lot of Good
      3.8
    • This collection features the first three novels of this highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author. Compassionate, satirical, deeply insightful and humorous, these compelling novels have gained him millions of fans. Setting Free the Bears : Siggy and Hannes were disenchanted students and fellow conspirators. Astride a 700cc royal Enfield motorcycle, they roamed the Austrian countryside. When Gallen, a lovely hitchhiker, joined them, they zeroed in on the Vienna Zoo--and Siggy's setting free the bears! The Water-Method Man : The acclaimed second novel by the author of the #1 international bestseller, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Fred "Bogus" Trumper is a wayward knight-errant in the battle of the sexes, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, he stubbornly clings to the notion he'll make something of his life. The 158 Pound Marriage : Sometimes they looked at each other, aroused half out of their minds by the thought that each had just been making love with another, and it would be enough to make them want to do it--together--all over again. Well, almost enough.

      Setting Free The Bears / The Water-Method Man / The 158-Pound Marriage
      3.9
    • 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.

      Last Night in Twisted River
      3.8
    • The Hotel New Hampshire

      • 401 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      ""The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels.""So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they "dream on" in a funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel by the remarkable author of "A Widow for One Year" and "The Cider House Rules."

      The Hotel New Hampshire
      3.8
    • John Irving hat sie als seine liebste Geschichte bezeichnet: Ein Mann, der auf den Händen geht, ein Bär auf einem Einrad – das sind nur zwei der Seltsamkeiten, die dem Hotelinspektor begegnen, der zusammen mit seiner Familie in der Pension Grillparzer, Wien, Ecke Planken- und Seilergasse absteigt, um zu prüfen, ob sie eine höhere Klassifikation verdient. Dem Irving-Leser sind sie vertraut: Die kurze Erzählung 'The Pension Grillparzer', 1976 erschienen und später in 'The World According to Garp' eingebaut, enthält Irvings ganzen erzählerischen Kosmos in nuce, ist verrückt, skurril, phantastisch und damit bester Irving für Einsteiger. Beigegeben sind Irvings 'notes' zu seiner Story.

      The pension Grillparzer
      3.7
    • In One Person

      • 425 pages
      • 15 hours of reading

      Billy, a solitary bisexual man, is dedicated to making himself worthwhile.

      In One Person
      3.7
    • A Widow for One Year

      • 667 pages
      • 24 hours of reading

      Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character - a difficult woman. By no means is she conventionally nice , but she will never be forgotten. Her story is told in three parts, each focusing on a critical time in her life.

      A Widow for One Year
      3.7
    • A thrilling journey into the minds of African elephants as they struggle to survive. If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. In The White Bone, a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own.For years, young Mud and her family have roamed the high grasses, swamps, and deserts of the sub-Sahara. Now the earth is scorched by drought, and the mutilated bodies of family and friends lie scattered on the ground, shot down by ivory hunters. Nothing-not the once familiar terrain, or the age-old rhythms of life, or even memory itself-seems reliable anymore. Yet a slim prophecy of hope is passed on from water hole to water hole: the sacred white bone of legend will point the elephants toward the Safe Place. And so begins a quest through Africa's vast and perilous plains-until at last the survivors face a decisive trial of loyalty and courage.In The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy performs a feat of imagination virtually unparalleled in modern fiction. Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory.

      Der weiße Knochen
      3.6
    • Until i find you

      • 1034 pages
      • 37 hours of reading

      John Irving's 11th novel is set in Canada and New England, as well as Hollywood and the North Sea ports of Europe. It is epic in scope, and Irving's most ambitious and moving work to date.

      Until i find you
      3.7
    • Roman om en ung mands opvækst, studenterår og mislykkede ægteskab

      The Water-Method Man
      3.6
    • The Imaginary Girlfriend

      • 192 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      "The Imaginary Girlfriend is a candid memoir of the writers and wrestlers who played a role in John Irving's development as a novelist and as a wrestler"--Publisher's description

      The Imaginary Girlfriend
      3.4
    • Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by John Irving, beginning with three memoirs - two of which (including an account of Mr. Irving's dinner with President Reagan at the White House) are new to American readers. The newest and longest of the memoirs, "The Imaginary Girlfriend", is the core of this collection. The middle section of the book is fiction. In 28 years, John Irving has written eight novels - but only a half-dozen short stories that he considers "finished"; they are all published here. In the third and final section are three essays of appreciation: one on Gunter Grass, two on Charles Dickens. To each of the 12 pieces, which cover 30 years of writing, Mr. Irving has contributed his Author's Notes.

      Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
      3.4
    • All That Is

      • 369 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      NATIONAL BESTSELLER A New York Times Book Review Notable Book An NPR "Great Reads" Book All That Is explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change. Philip Bowman returns to America from the battlefields of Okinawa and finds success in the competetive world of publishing in postwar New York—yet what he most desires, and what eludes him, is love. Here is PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter's dazzling, sometimes devastating portrait of love and ambition, a fiercely intimate account of the great shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.

      All That Is
      3.4
    • My Movie Business: A memoir

      • 160 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      John Irving S Memoir Begins With His Account Of The Distinguished Career And Medical Writings Of The Novelist S Grandfather Dr Frederick C. Irving, A Renowned Obstetrician And Gynaecologist, And Includes Mr Irving S Incisive History Of Abortion Politics In The United States. But My Movie Business Focuses Primarily On The Thirteen Years John Irving Spent Adapting His Novel The Cider House Rules For The Screen For Four Different Directors.Mr Irving Also Writes About The Failed Effort To Make His First Novel, Setting Free The Bears, Into A Movie, About Two Of The Films That Were Made From His Novels (But Not From His Screenplays), The World According To Garp And The Hotel New Hampshire; About His Slow Progress At Shepherding His Screenplay Of A Son Of The Circus Into Production.Not Least, And In Addition To Its Qualities As A Memoir Anecdotal, Comic, Affectionate And Candid My Movie Business Is An Insightful Essay On The Essential Differences Between Writing A Novel And Writing A Screenplay.

      My Movie Business: A memoir
      3.4
    • Als een leeuw de linkerhand afbijt van een New Yorkse journalist, wordt gezocht naar een handdonor.

      The Fourth Hand
      3.4
    • Setting Free the Bears

      • 352 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      It is 1967 and two Viennese university students want to liberate the Vienna Zoo, as was done after World War II. But their good intentions have both comic and gruesome consequences, in this first novel written by a twenty-five year old John Irving, already a master storyteller.

      Setting Free the Bears
      3.4
    • John Irving, one of the world's greatest novelists, returns with his first novel in seven years -- a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics. In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts; in The Last Chairlift, they aren't the first or the last ghosts he sees. John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time -- among them, The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. A visionary voice on the subject of sexual tolerance, Irving is a bard of alternative families. In The Last Chairlift, readers will once more be in his thrall.

      The last chairlift
      3.3
    • On a New England campus, Viennese housewife Utchka and her aspiring writer husband live a rather placid life with their two children.Until, that is, they meet Severin Winter, Professor of German and wrestling coach, and his delicate wife Edith at a faculty party.

      The 158-Pound Marriage
      3.3
    • Avenue of Mysteries

      • 768 pages
      • 27 hours of reading

      Juan Diego�e(tm)s little sister is a mind reader. As a teenager, he struggles to keep anything secret �e" Lupe knows all the worst things that go through his mind. And sometimes she knows more. What a terrible burden it is to know �e" or to think you know �e" your future, or worse, the future of someone you love. What might a young girl be driven to do if she thought she had the power to change what lies ahead? Later in life, Juan Diego embarks on a journey to fulfil a promise he made in his youth. It is a long story and it has long awaited an ending, but Juan Diego is unable to write the final chapters. This is the story of what happens when the future collides with the past.

      Avenue of Mysteries
      3.2
    • Because of Mr. terupt

      • 336 pages
      • 12 hours of reading

      Seven students are about to have their lives changed by one amazing teacher in this school story sequel filled with unique characters every reader can relate to. It’s the start of a new year at Snow Hill School, and seven students find themselves thrown together in Mr. Terupt’s fifth grade class. There’s . . . Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who’s having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school. They don’t have much in common, and they’ve never gotten along. Not until a certain new teacher arrives and helps them to find strength inside themselves—and in each other. But when Mr. Terupt suffers a terrible accident, will his students be able to remember the lessons he taught them? Or will their lives go back to the way they were before—before fifth grade and before Mr. Terupt? Find out what happens in sixth and seventh grades in Mr. Terupt Falls Again and Saving Mr. Terupt. And don't miss the conclusion to the series, Goodbye, Mr. Terupt, coming soon! "The characters are authentic and the short chapters are skillfully arranged to keep readers moving headlong toward the satisfying conclusion."--School Library Journal, Starred

      Because of Mr. terupt
      4.4
    • Die blaurote Luftmatratze

      • 285 pages
      • 10 hours of reading

      15 berühmte Schriftsteller erzählen ein sommerliches Ferienstück, in dem - so die einzige Bedingung - eine blaurote Luftmatratze vorkommen muss. Illustriert von internationalen Starzeichnern stellt sich beim Lesen dieses Buches unweigerlich ein Gefühl von Sommer-Sonne-blauer-Himmel ein. Man wähnt sich schmökernd auf einer sanft schaukelnden Luftmatratze. Einer blauroten, versteht sich.

      Die blaurote Luftmatratze
      5.0
    • Ferienlesebuch

      • 380 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Das Buch, das eine ganze Reisebibliothek ersetzt und noch in jeden Koffer passt. Das Ferienlesebuch 2004 mit vergnüglichen und spannenden Erzählungen großer Autorinnen und Autoren. Mit wasserfester Schutzhülle.

      Ferienlesebuch
      4.5
    • John Irving über Günter Grass und Elisabeth Mann Borgese, über Marcel Reich-Ranicki und Hunde, die Klavier spielen können. Ein Stimmungsbericht über das Deutschland der neunziger Jahre.

      Deutschlandreise
      3.9
    • Die Jubiläums-Edition: 12 erfolgreiche Diogenes Bücher in einmaliger Ausstattung zum einmaligen Preis zum Start des Jubiläums am 1. Juni 2002. Alfred Andersch: Der Vater eines Mörders. Paulo Coelho: Der Dämon und Fräulein Prym. Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Labyrinth / Turmbau. Stoffe I-IX. Patricia Highsmith: Der süße Wahn. John Irving: Gottes Werk und Teufels Beitrag. Donna Leon: Venezianisches Finale Ingrid Noll: Der Hahn ist tot. Bernhard Schlink: Der Vorleser Georges Simenon: Der Mann, der den Zügen nachsah. Patrick Süskind: Das Parfum. Andrzej Szczypiorski: Die schöne Frau Seidenman. Urs Widmer: Der Geliebte der Mutter.

      Jubiläums- Edition in 12 Bänden