Avenue of Mysteries

2017 Longlist

Juan Diego’s little sister is a mind reader. As a teenager, he struggles to keep anything secret – Lupe knows all the worst things that go through his mind. And sometimes she knows more. What a terrible burden it is to know – or to think you know – your future, or worse, the future of someone you love. What might a young girl be driven to do if she thought she had the power to change what lies ahead?

Later in life, Juan Diego embarks on a journey to fulfil a promise he made in his youth. It is a long story and it has long awaited an ending, but Juan Diego is unable to write the final chapters.

This is the story of what happens when the future collides with the past.

(from publisher)

About the Author

John Irving was born in New Hampshire in 1942. His first novel was published in 1968 when he was twenty-six. He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, and coached wrestling until he was forty-seven. Mr Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for his novel The World According to Garp. In 2000, Mr Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. An international writer-his novels have been translated into more than thirty-five languages-John Irving lives in Toronto. His all-time best-selling novel, in every language, is A Prayer for Owen Meany.

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