John Irving

John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, appeared in 1968, but his fourth, The World According to Garp, brought him broad recognition a decade later. He is also a screenwriter and holds both American and Canadian citizenship.

Irving writes large-scale literary novels in which domestic life can turn comic, strange or abruptly tragic. His recurring subjects include unconventional families, sexual identity, absent parents, memory and the difficulty of separating personal history from invention. He often follows characters across decades, giving accidents and early choices consequences that surface much later.

The World According to Garp won the 1980 National Book Award for paperback fiction. Other major novels include The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Irving adapted The Cider House Rules for film and won the Academy Award for adapted screenplay in 2000.

Start with The World According to Garp. Through the lives of the writer T. S. Garp and his formidable mother, Jenny Fields, it offers a strong introduction to Irving’s long-form storytelling, dark humor, sexual politics and fascination with families made outside conventional patterns. Readers drawn to its moral arguments may continue with The Cider House Rules; those who want another sweeping life story can try A Prayer for Owen Meany.