Book description
'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...
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. His most recent novel is Last Night in Twisted River.
