‘A work of genius’ Independent’So extraordinary, so original, and so enriching’ Stephen King’May justly join the classic American list’ Anthony Burgess’Marvellously funny . . . What better entertainment is there than a serious book which makes you laugh?’ Spectator—————————–‘If you care about something you have to protect it. If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.’Summer, 1953. In the small town of Gravesend, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old John Wheelwright and his best friend Owen Meany are playing in a Little League baseball game. When Owen hits a foul ball which kills John’s mother, their lives are changed in an instant.It is dismissed as a tragic accident but Owen disagrees. He believes that he is God’s instrument, put on Earth for a higher purpose. And as the boys come into adulthood to the background of the Vietnam War, a series of remarkable events show that perhaps Owen’s divine plan was not imagined after all.Discover the funny yet poignant classic by the bestselling author of The World According to Garp.