The Fourth Hand by John Irving

Skip to product information
1 of 1

Click to look inside

The Fourth Hand by John Irving

Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
The feel-good place to buy books
  • Free UK delivery over £5
  • 10% off preloved books when you join +Plus
  • Buying preloved emits 46% less CO2 than new
  • Give your books a new home - sell them back to us!

The Fourth Hand by John Irving

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELER - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOK

While reporting a story from India, New York journalist Patrick Wallingford inadvertently becomes his own headline when his left hand is eaten by a lion. In Boston, a renowned surgeon eagerly awaits the opportunity to perform the nation's first hand transplant. But what if the donor's widow demands visitation rights with the hand? In answering this unexpected question, John Irving has written a novel that is by turns brilliantly comic and emotionally moving, offering a penetrating look at the power of second chances and the will to change.

Praise for The Fourth Hand

A rich and deeply moving tale . . . Vintage Irving: a story of two very disparate people, and the strange and unexpected ways we grow . . . Irving's novels are perceptive and precise reflections of the world around us.--The Washington Post Book World

A blend of sexual farce, journalistic satire, and tender love story . . . From what at first seems bizarre, Irving builds the best kind of love story: an improbable one. Wallingford gets more than a transplanted hand; he begins to find his soul.--USA Today

A riveting entertainment and certainly one of the funniest novels of the year. The authoritative control of Irving's storytelling has never been more impressive. . . . The delighted reader is powerless to look away.--Chicago Sun-Times

A] thoroughly satisfying literary experience . . . Irving's most compassionate and redemptive novel] to date . . . His] mastery of characterization is unequaled in American novelists of the day.--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A beautiful story about the redemptive power of love.--The Denver Post

The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving's fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving's novels are now translated into 35 languages, and he has had nine international bestsellers. Worldwide, the Irving novel most often called an American classic is A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), the portrayal of an enduring friendship at a time when the Vietnam War had its most divisive effect on the United States.
In 1992, John Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He competed as a wrestler for 20 years, until he was 34, and coached the sport until he was 47.) In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules, a Lasse Hallstrom film that earned seven Academy Award nominations. Tod Williams wrote and directed The Door in the Floor, the 2004 film adapted from Irving's ninth novel, A Widow for One Year.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780345449344
ISBN 10 0345449347
Title The Fourth Hand
Author John Irving
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Random House USA Inc
Year published 2002-05-14
Number of pages 352
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable