A Prayer for Owen Meany

John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) is the novelist’s seventh and best-selling novel to date. Through a series of flashbacks, it tells the story of an unusually small boy with a strange voice named Owen Meany who believes himself to be specially chosen by God. Narrated by John Wheelwright, Owen’s best friend, the narrative alternates between the past—which begins in 1950s New Hampshire and extends to the late 1960s—and the present, Toronto in 1987. John recounts how Owen’s insistence that he knows the date of his death comes to fruition. Reviews of the novel at the time of its release were mixed, with some critics finding the plot contrived and others praising its heartwarming tone.

Irving, the author of 15 novels, is regarded as building upon the tradition of the 19th century novel. He counts Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick among his main influences. He is a three-time nominee for the National Book Award, which he received in 1980 for The World According to Garp. His novel The Cider House Rules was also made into a feature film for which Irving won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000.