A Prayer for Owen Meany

In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, John Wheelwright grows up alongside his best friend, Owen Meany — a tiny boy with a strange, wrecked voice and an unshakable conviction that he is God's instrument, put on earth for a purpose he can dimly foresee. When Owen hits a foul ball that kills John's mother, the tragedy binds the two boys together and sets in motion a chain of events neither can escape.

Narrated by an adult John looking back across the decades — through the Vietnam era, the loss of faith, and the slow revelation of Owen's destiny — John Irving's novel is a sprawling, funny, and profoundly moving meditation on belief, doubt, fate, and friendship.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of Irving's most beloved works: a big-hearted American epic that dares to take faith seriously while never losing its sharp comic voice, building toward an ending of remarkable emotional and spiritual force.