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  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving book cover
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A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving Publisher: WILLIAM MORROW

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Faith, chance, and a childhood changed

$18.74 USD
$31.24 USD $18.74 USD
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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

    Selected as a Great American Read Top 100 Pick.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Faith, chance, and a childhood changed

In Gravesend, New Hampshire, a fatal foul ball binds two eleven-year-old best friends to questions of accident and divine purpose. The narrator’s account looks back on Owen Meany, whose conviction that he is an instrument of God shapes how he understands the death of his friend’s mother—and why his friend comes to believe in God. The novel’s long arc begins in 1953 and uses this childhood rupture to explore faith, grief, and the search for meaning. Its central tension rests on two sharply different readings of the same event: one boy sees no such thing as an accident; the other’s belief is transformed by Owen.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction centered on friendship and formative loss.
  • Readers drawn to fiction exploring faith, divine purpose, and the meaning of chance.

Themes

Faith and beliefFriendshipGrief and lossChance and divine purpose

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation. ... An amazingly brave piece of work ... so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." --STEPHEN KING, Washington Post

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, one of literary fiction's most unforgettable characters, believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Great service and fast service

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Ella

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

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