A Prayer for Owen Meany

von John Irving

Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball that kills his best friend s mother. Owen doesn t believe in accidents; he believes that he is God s instrument. What happens to Owenafter that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying. At moments a comic, self-deluded victim, but in the end the principal tragic actor in a divine plan, Owen Meany is the most heartbreaking hero John Irving has yet created.