''Witty, tenderhearted, fervent'' New York Times ''Difficult to define, impossible not to admire'' Daily Telegraph ''An old-fashioned, big-hearted novel... somewhere between Trollope and Twain'' Boston Globe ''Superb in scope and originality, a novel as good as one could hope to find from any author'' Joseph Heller __________ ''The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud''s so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer''s intention to make St Cloud''s his home.'' Homer Wells'' odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud''s orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage''s founder - a man of rare compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend.

Autorentext
John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story 'Interior Space'. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. For more information about the author, please visit www.john-irving.com

Klappentext

'Witty, tenderhearted, fervent' New York Times
'Difficult to define, impossible not to admire' Daily Telegraph
'An old-fashioned, big-hearted novel... somewhere between Trollope and Twain' Boston Globe
'Superb in scope and originality, a novel as good as one could hope to find from any author' Joseph Heller
__________

'The reason Homer Wells kept his name was that he came back to St Cloud's so many times, after so many failed foster homes, that the orphanage was forced to acknowledge Homer's intention to make St Cloud's his home.'

Homer Wells' odyssey begins among the apple orchards of rural Maine. As the oldest unadopted child at St Cloud's orphanage, he strikes up a profound and unusual friendship with Wilbur Larch, the orphanage's founder - a man of rare compassion and an addiction to ether. What he learns from Wilbur takes him from his early apprenticeship in the orphanage surgery, to an adult life running a cider-making factory and a strange relationship with the wife of his closest friend.